[Current etiologies of chronic or subacute surgical, pure aortic insufficiencies in adults. Apropos of 91 medico-surgical cases].
Ninety one patients (78 men, mean age 53; 13 women, mean age 50) from a geographically stable and ethnically homogeneous population (Eastern Brittany) underwent surgery for chronic or subacute aortic insufficiency (AI), present alone, between 1986 and 1992 (72 aortic valve replacements, 17 Bentall type (Cabrol modification) operations, 2 ascending aorta reduction plasties combined with aortic valve replacement). Preoperative clinical and paraclinical findings were reviewed in the context of peroperative and pathological findings. Etiologies were as follows in decreasing order of frequency: 1) degenerative: 40 cases (44%): 34 men and 6 women, with aneurysm of the ascending aorta (19 cases); 2) sequelae of infectious endocarditis: 20 cases (22%): 14 men, 6 women; 3) post-inflammatory (rheumatic): 16 cases (18%): 16 men; 4) congenital bicuspid valves: 15 cases (16%): 14 men, 1 woman. Chronic (or subacute) surgical AI is currently an essentially male disorder, presenting mainly during the 6th decade of life, the foremost cause of which, identifiable in the majority of cases on the basis of simple preoperative findings, is degenerative disease of the aorta of or the aortic valve itself.