Echocardiographic and Surgical Findings of Spontaneous Avulsion of the Aortic Valve Commissure

Abstract

Spontaneous detachment of the aortic valve commissure (ie, avulsion of a commissure) is a rare cause of acute massive aortic regurgitation that follows a rapidly deteriorating clinical course. The aortic valve commissure between the non-coronary and right coronary cusps detached from the aortic wall in a 79-year old man with ascending aortic aneurysm. Emergency aortic valve replacement and aneurysmoplasty were successfully performed; histopathology of the aorta and aortic valve showed cystic medial necrosis and myxomatous degeneration, respectively. Preoperative transthoracic echocardiography showed an eccentric massive regurgitant jet at the site of the prolapsing cusps with a vegetation-like echodense mass, and transesophageal echocardiography showed the prolapsing non-coronary and right coronary cusps conjoined by the commissural tissue. It was the precise echocardiographic evaluation of the avulsion that enabled sucessful emergency aortic valve surgery.