Ostial stenosis after Bentall technique using glue: percutaneous stenting may be ineffective

Fibrin glue on an aortic cusp detected by transesophageal echocardiography after valve-sparing aortic valve replacement: a case report

Introduction

Fibrin glue is used commonly during cardiac surgery but can behave as an intracardiac abnormal foreign body following surgery. There have been few such cases reported, and they were typically noticed only because of the resulting catastrophic cardiac conditions, such as valvular malfunction. We report a case where, for the first time, transesophageal echocardiography was used to detected fibrin glue that was adherent to the ventricular side of a patient’s aortic valve immediately after aortic declamping.

Case presentation

A 45-year-old Japanese man with Marfan syndrome underwent an aortic valve-sparing operation to treat moderate aortic valve regurgitation resulting from enlargement of his right coronary cusp. Fibrin glue was lightly applied to the suture line between the previous and new grafts. Transesophageal echocardiography performed prior to weaning from the cardiopulmonary bypass revealed mild aortic valve regurgitation in addition to a mobile membranous structure attached to the ventricular side of his aortic valve. It was identified as fibrin glue. We resolved the regurgitation by removing the fibrin glue and repeating the aortic cusp plication. The patient had no complications during recovery.

Conclusions

Fibrin glue can act as an intracardiac foreign body and lead to a potentially fatal embolism. We demonstrated the use of transesophageal echocardiography to detect a fibrin glue-derived intracardiac abnormal foreign body and to confirm its removal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case where fibrin glue adherent to the aortic valve was detected by transesophageal echocardiography. These findings demonstrate the importance of using transesophageal echocardiography during cardiac surgery that involves using biological glues.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13256-014-0512-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Left Main Complication of the Bentall's Procedure

We present two interesting cases of critical left main stenosis following the Bentall's procedure, with each case having a different outcome. There will also be brief discussion of the treatment for this complication.

Progression of left main coronary artery disease 3 years after Bentall operation in a young female with Marfan syndrome

A 39-year-old woman with Marfan syndrome presented to our hospital with chest oppression on effort. She underwent aortic root remodeling combined with aortic valve replacement 14 years ago and Bentall operation for enlargement of remaining native Valsalva sinus 3 years ago. A coronary computed tomography and a coronary angiography showed left main coronary artery stenosis, which was subsequently treated with percutaneous coronary intervention using a bare-metal stent. Follow-up coronary angiography performed 1 year after stenting revealed no restenosis.

Left main coronary stenosis as a consequence of bentall operation: percutaneous treatment

A 65-year-old man suffering from ascending aorta aneurysm and atherosclerotic three vessel disease without left main involvement underwent aortic root replacement with coronary ostia reimplantation according to the modified Bentall technique and multiple coronary artery bypass grafts. Gelatin-resorcin-formaldehyde glue was used to reinforce the aortic coronary buttons and to facilitate hemostasis. Five months after surgery, the patient experienced rapidly worsening effort angina. Coronary angiography showed severe left main narrowing. The considerable amount of time that elapsed between surgery and the onset of symptoms implies that the problem was not related to an imperfect suture technique, but was most likely caused by an inflammatory and proliferative response to the glue that had been used. We performed elective percutaneous coronary intervention and stenting of the protected coronary vessel without technical difficulties and with a satisfactory final result. The patient is currently symptom-free after 1 year's follow-up.

Sirolimus-eluting stent implantation for ostial stenosis of left main coronary artery after Bentall operation in aortitis syndrome

We describe a 66-year-old woman with aortitis syndrome, successfully treated with percutaneous coronary intervention using sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) for ostial stenosis of left main coronary artery after Bentall operation. At one-year follow-up, she had no evidence of restenosis and no clinical events. Stent implantation with SES may be useful for ostial left main coronary stenosis after Bentall operation in selected patients with aortitis syndrome.