Investigating solutions for three diverse problems in cardiac surgery

1. Coarctation (a constriction of the aorta) was repaired with a synthetic patch. Patients presented with aneurysms around the patch. We demonstrated this was because of the different mechanical properties of the patch and the aorta. 2. Endocarditis (infection) of the aortic valve frequently requires aortic valve replacement with the risk of recurrent infection. The lowest risk of recurrent infection is to use a homograft (human aortic valve). 3. When outcomes (death, reoperation) after cardiac surgery are multiple events, statistical methods can depict one event. Competing risk analysis can depict more than one event and was applied to transplantation.