Intermittent poppet dislodgment in a Braunwald-Cutter prosthesis: noninvasive diagnosis and successful surgical treatment.

A 65 year old patient had his mitral and aortic valves replaced with two Braunwald-Cutter prostheses in 1973. Seven years later, he presented with intermittent aortic insufficiency demonstrated by echocardiography, fluoroscopy and angiography. At emergency surgery, the occluders (poppets) of both prostheses were found within the left ventricular cavity. The valves were excised and replaced with Björk-Shiley prostheses and the patient recovered. Aortic occluder escape is rare and usually fatal. Mitral occluder escape of the Braunwald-Cutter prosthesis has not been described previously.