TY - JOUR T1 - Personalised external aortic root support JF - Heart JO - Heart SP - 1065 LP - 1066 DO - 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-306136 VL - 100 IS - 13 AU - Tom Treasure AU - J JM Takkenberg AU - John Pepper Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://heart.bmj.com/content/100/13/1065.2.abstract N2 - Dear Editor, Valve replacing and valve-sparing root replacement were devised on the operating table and evolved by trial and error. Different times set different standards. By contrast, after 4 years of research collaboration between surgeons, anatomists and engineers (2000–2004), personalised external aortic root support (PEARS) has followed a standard protocol in 42 patients with over 170 patient-years of intention-to-treat analysis, and has been systematically and rigorously evaluated. Cameron’s ‘two technical points’1 do not accurately reflect how this operation is in fact performed.2 The proximal … ER -