Bentall Procedure
I also had a bicuspid aortic valve, along with two aneurisms. I had the Bentall procedure done. It's been well described in this thread. My surgeon defined it almost exactly as Wikipedia does. Basically the aortic valve, the root structure around the valve with it's sinuses, and the ascending aorta are replaced.
This procedure requires cutting the coronary arteries out from the aorta with a margin of healthy aorta left around them (buttons). They are then anastomosed to the graft i.e. connected to the artificial aorta – which in my case is made of Dacron. The coronary arteries are much smaller arteries that feed blood to the heart itself.
Only a portion of the surgery takes place with the heart off-line and blood being oxygenated and circulated through cardiopulmonary bypass a.k.a. the heart-lung machine. While the heart is stopped it is kept very cool to limit it's oxygen demands (I was told they use ice). In my case when allowed to my heart spontaneously started again and was warmed while on CPB then weaned from it. My perfusion data was: Clamp Time 90 minutes, Pump Time 126 minutes (CPB, heart-lung machine). According to my family I was in the operating room for 5-6 hours.
Perhaps your doctors told you it is common for people with a bicuspid valve to also have connective tissue disorders or aneurisms of the aorta... thus leading to the Bentall Procedure. I would advise asking your doctors all the questions you can by writing them down. And explore this site to discover new questions you may not have thought of. Knowledge is power. Unfortunately I didn't have time to discover this site before my surgery.
