Abstrakt
After 60 years of experimental and clinical development of heart valve prostheses, ideal heart valve prosthesis is not available. The chapter tries to review the history as well as the contemporary role of an aortic allograft in aortic valve surgery.
It provides the basic information concerning the allograft heart valves procurement, processing, cryopreservation and thawing in general. Current view of surgical techniques of aortic allograft transplantation as well as the indication of that particular aortic valve substitute are summarised, documenting that in many cardiac surgical departments it is still considered as a method of choice for aortic valve, annulus and root infective endocarditis treatment.
The modern trends of heart valve allograft decellularisation are addressed in brief, and the future of the aortic allograft tissue engineering is hypothesised.