Panagiotis Kalogris
1, Kosmas Iliadis
2, Gregory Amanatidis
1, Alexandros Demis
1, Anna Smyrli
1, Konstantinos Petsios
3*1 Second Department of Adult Cardiac Surgery, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece
2 Director of Thoracic Surgery Clinic, Hygeia Hospital, Athens, Greece
3 Nursing Clinical Research Office, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece
Abstract
We describe a case of a 43-year old woman with Marfan’s syndrome, tricuspid valve regurgitation and severe pectus excavatum who required an aortic root replacement and valvuloplasty for an ascending aortic aneurism with aortic valve regurgitation and tricuspid valve regurgitation. There was a severe angulation of the sternum which was close to 1.5 cm to the column vertebrae. Such cases are quite rare and always a challenge for surgeons to achieve adequate exposure of the heart and prevent excessive cardiac compression. We present our access, a safe and efficient exposure of the heart in order to achieve the best outcome.