Successful Treatment of Aortic Root Rupture Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in a Heavily Calcified Aorta: A Novel Approach to a Serious Complication

Aortic root rupture during transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an uncommon but almost uniformly fatal complication. We describe a novel surgical management of this complication using a combination of pledgeted sutures and prolonged direct digital compression with biomatrix and lattice adjuncts. Furthermore, our patient underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with endothelial progenitor cell-capturing stents, which facilitated TAVI to be performed off clopidogrel therapy. We believe the use of these stents reduced the severity of hemorrhage following aortic root rupture and helped maintain vessel patency following prolonged hypotension. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.