Personalized external aortic root support: A review of the current status

Abstract

Personalized external aortic root support (PEARS) is an emerging technology. It is a pre-emptive operation to halt aortic root expansion and maintain aortic valve function in Marfan syndrome and is also applicable to aortic root aneurysms of other aetiologies. To fully evaluate PEARS, awareness of all those who advise these patients is necessary to ensure that patients are fully informed of the alternative operations, to carefully build experience, to ensure safety and quality and to monitor outcomes. Herein, we present a summary of published methods and outcomes and the arrangements in place for fuller evaluation.