Surgical consideration of replacement of the ascending aorta and aortic valve with a composite valve graft--operative and long-term results of Bentall and DeBono procedure.

Our experience with the Bentall and DeBono procedure is reviewed. Between April, 1977 and April, 1985, seventeen patients underwent repair of annulo-aortic ectasia (9 cases), and dissecting aneurysm with aortic regurgitation (8 cases). Three patients had cardiac tamponade due to rupture of dissecting aneurysm. In regard to this procedure, we recently performed the continuous suture method on the prosthetic valve ring, coronary ostia, and distal anastomosis sites. In this study, there was one early death due to a sudden rupture of the dissecting aneurysm of the left thoracic cavity on the 10th postoperative day. In addition, there were two late deaths due to sepsis and suspected arrhythmia. The late follow-up period ranged from 6 months to 8 years (mean 35 months), and all patients were in NYHA Class I or II. We conclude that the composite valve graft method is an excellent technique for annuloaortic ectasia and ascending aortic dissections with aortic regurgitation because of its low operative mortality and fair survival rate.