Difficulty Weaning From Cardiopulmonary Bypass Following an Aortic Valve Replacement

Aortic valve replacement (AVR) remains the treatment of choice for severe aortic stenosis. Despite the growing number of transcatheter AVR (TAVR) in younger and intermediate-to-low-risk patients, surgical AVR (SAVR) is widely used and retains low operative mortality, low rate of complications, and predictable long-term valve durability. Although it is a straightforward procedure, on some occasions, a surgeon could face challenging situations, such as compromised coronary flow and an inability to wean the patient from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Our patient required concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting to overcome biventricular failure and facilitate successful weaning from CPB.