Commentary: A Paradigm Change in Surgical Management of the Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy to Avoid Heart Transplantation

While treatment of classic septal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is well established, the treatment for long segment subaortic variant and apical hypertrophy variants are less clearly defined. The apical variant has traditionally been treated with a heart transplant, however, there is emerging experience with a transapical approach to treat this condition that may be used as an alternate to a heart transplant. The researchers reference a twenty-two-year-old patient who was successfully treated with this approach and suggest it may be used for other ventricular septal defect closures and endocardial fibroelastosis.