Balloon Fracturing Valve-in-Valve: How to Do It and a Case Report of TAVR in a Rapid Deployment Prosthesis.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to treat degeneration of bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs), called as valve-in-valve (ViV), is becoming a key feature since the number of BHVs requiring intervention is increasing and many patients are at high risk for a redo cardiac surgery. However, a TAVR inside a small previous cardiac valve may lead to prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) and not be as effective as we hoped for. An effective option to decrease the chance of PPM is to fracture the previous heart valve implanted using a high-pressure balloon. By performing a valve fracture, the inner valve ring of small BHVs can be opened up by a single fracture line, allowing subsequent implantation of a properly sized transcatheter heart valve, without increasing substantially the procedure risk. In this article, we provide a step-by-step procedure on how to safely and properly fracture a BHV and report a case of a TAVR in a degenerated rapid deployment valve.

Saccular Superior Vena Cava Aneurysm: Case Report and Comprehensive Review.

Saccular superior vena cava aneurysms (SVCAs) are one of the rarest causes of mediastinal masses. Seventy years after the first published case report, to the best of our knowledge, fewer than 30 cases have been described in the literature. This article provides an overview of the peculiarities regarding diagnosis and treatment performed in these cases and addresses the protocol adopted in our case report. We present a saccular aneurysm resected through median sternotomy, under cardiopulmonary bypass and superior vena cava reconstruction using a bovine pericardial patch.