The Ross procedure may be a more favorable option for aortic valve replacement among patients under 50 years old than more standard mechanical or biological replacements, according to a study from Mount Sinai Heart. The research, published in the February 2022 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology, is the first to compare the Ross procedure to the other options, and shows that it leads to improved survival and better outcomes in younger adults.
“Not only was survival better than after biological or mechanical aortic valve replacement, it was also identical to the matched U.S. general population. To this day, this is the only operation that has ever been shown to restore survival after aortic valve replacement in young adults,” says lead author Ismail El-Hamamsy, MD, PhD, the Mount Sinai Randall B. Griepp, MD Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of Aortic Surgery for the Mount Sinai Health System. “This demonstrates the impact of valve choice in the long term. However, there is an important word of caution: the Ross procedure is a more complex operation and should only be performed in Ross centers of excellence. When done in that setting, this represents a major breakthrough for young patients with aortic valve disease, including young women contemplating pregnancy.”
