The surgical treatment of the aortic valve and root disease, organic and ischemic mitral regurgitation, and endocarditis has made great strides. Still, there is the well-known dilemma: on the one hand the need for anticoagulation in patients with mechanical valves that otherwise guarantee long-term functioning and, on the other, the unpredictable durability of biological substitutes and of valve repair procedures which, per se, do not require anticoagulation. The choice of procedure is determined by factors such as patients' age, metabolic and bleeding disorders, and bleeding preconditions, as well as such critical issues as the desire to bear children in young women.

The book contains a collection of proceedings of The Berlin Heart Valve Symposium which was held in November 2008. It focuses on current surgical approaches to and evolving trends in aortic valve repair, aortic root and valve replacement with pulmonary autograft, aortic allograft, stentless and stented bioprostheses. Further contributions will deal with recent advances in catheter-based percutaneous and transapical techniques, ablation techniques for atrial fibrillation, tissue engineering of heart valves, multi-modality imaging, and anticoagulation.

Imaging of the aortic root

Perioperative imaging for assessing aortic and mitral valve diseases and surgical procedures
Innovations in aortic valve surgery
The aortic root
Percutaneous transluminal aortic valve replacement: The CoreValve prosthesis
Transapical aortic valve implantation - A truly minimally invasive option for high-risk patients
From minimally invasive to percutaneous aortic valve replacement
Sutureless equine aortic valve replacement
The Ross operation: Aortic valve and root replacement with pulmonary autograft
Pulmonary autograft or aortic allograft for surgical treatment of active infective aortic valve endocarditis: a review of the literature
The Ross operation: two decades of clinical experience
Aortic valve repair and valve sparing root procedures
The bicuspid aortic valve
From dynamic anatomy to conservative aortic valve surgery: the tale of the ring
Yacoub/David techniques for aortic root operation: success and failures
Aortic annuloplasty
Correction of aortic valve incompetence combined with ascending aortic aneurysm by relocation of the aortic valve plane through a short-length aortic graft replacement
Using BioGlue to achieve hemostasis in aortic root surgery
Endocarditis
Challenges in the surgical management of infective endocarditis
Clinical results of the Shelhigh® stentless bioprosthesis in patients with active infective endocarditis:
Double valve endocarditis and evolving paraannular abscess formation
Aortic root abscess: reconstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract and allograft aortic valve and root replacement
Implantation techniques of freehand subcoronary aortic valve and root replacement with a cryopreserved allograft for aortic root abscess
Surgery for atrial fibrillation.-Cryoablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation in patients undergoing minimally invasive mitral valve surgery
Minimally invasive endoscopic ablation on the beating heart in patients with lone atrial fibrillation
Hemodynamic evaluation of the bioprosthetic aortic valves
Evaluation of bioprosthetic valve performance as a function of geometric orifice area and space efficiency- A reliable alternative to effective orifice area
Long-term results of biological valves
Stented and stentless aortic bioprostheses: competitive or complimentary?
Edwards Prima Plus Stentless Bioprosthesis: Long-term clinical and hemodynamic results
The Cryo-Life O'Brien stentless valve: 1991-2008
Medtronic stentless Freestyle® porcine aortic valve replacement
The ATS 3f Aortic Bioprosthesis
The Vascutek Elan stentless porcine prosthesis - The Glasgow experience
Sorin pericardial valves
The changing role of pericardial tissue in biological valve surgery: 22 years' experience with the Sorin Mitroflow stented pericardial valve
20 years' durability of Carpentier-Edwards Perimount stented pericardial aortic valve
Twenty-year experience with the St. Jude Medical Biocor bioprosthesis in the aortic position
20-Year durability of bioprostheses in the aortic position
Clinical results including hemodynamic performance of the Medtronic Mosaic porcine bioprosthesis up to ten years
Aortic root replacement with the BioValsalva prosthesis
Valve replacement in renal dialysis patients: bioprostheses versus mechanical prostheses
Replacement of bioprostheses after structural valve deterioration
Predictors of patient's outcome
Predicted outcomes after aortic valve replacement in octogenarians with aortic stenosis
Predicted patient outcome afterbioprosthetic AVR and the Ross operation
Anticoagulation
Anticoagulation and self-management of INR: mid-term results
Tissue engineering
Biomatrix-polymer hybrid material for heart valve tissue engineering
Standards for the in vitro fabrication of heart valves using human umbilical cord cells
Tissue engineering with a decellularized valve matrix
Regularatory issues on tissue valves
Human tissues for cardiovascular surgery: regulatory requirements
Concluding remarks
Concluding remarks
Atlas of biological valves
Atlas of biological valves.