Background
The incidence of sudden death after cardiac valve replacement surgery has been reported to be 0.2–2.7% (1,2). The main causes of sudden cardiac death include acute ischemic attack, worsening of congestive heart failure, and fatal arrhythmias (3-5).
As one of the fatal arrhythmias after aortic valve replacement (AVR), ventricular tachycardia (VT) arising from the periaortic region has been well-described in prior papers (6,7). Among them, Liang JJ et al. summarized the electrophysiological characteristics of periaortic VTs after AVR in detail (6). In their report of 10 patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathies after AVR, VTs originated from the periaortic region in 7 (70%). They also reported that periaortic scar detected by unipolar voltage mapping was observed in all 24 patients for whom detailed periaortic mapping was performed.
However, the incidence, time of onset, risk factors, and prognosis of periaortic VTs after AVR have not been investigated enough. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of periaortic VTs long after AVR.