Pulmonary valve leaflet extension with bovine pericardium: for treatment of pulmonary insufficiency.

Using a homograft in a pulmonic area is sometimes inadvisable due to the lack of optimal graft materials. We report a case of pulmonary valve insufficiency that we treated by leaflet extension using the commercially available E-Leafcon template and bovine pericardium. We suggest that this method can be an acceptable alternative for treating pulmonary valve insufficiency because the pulmonary valve area is similar to that of the aortic valve (for which application the template was designed). Further, the durability of bovine pericardium is comparable to that of a homograft or a xenograft.