The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 36, 218-222, Copyright © 1983 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
The coupling valve graft: a procedure for double-valve replacement
N Kitamura, M Atobe, H Tamura, T Minoji, S Nakata and S Tahara
Coupling valve grafting, a procedure to enlarge the annulus of the aortic
valve and of the mitral valve simultaneously, is described. It consists of
extending the J-shaped aortotomy through the middle of the noncoronary cusp
into the superior aspect of the left atrium and down the anterior leaflet
of the mitral valve. Then the mitral and aortic valves are replaced with a
coupling valve graft, a vascular prosthesis attached to two prosthetic
valves. This technique seems to be most suitable for patients in whom the
valves of both annuli are narrow, as is often seen in aortic and mitral
stenosis. Since both valve annuli can be enlarged greatly in this
procedure, combinations of prosthetic valve sizes can be freely chosen for
the two valves.