Pulmonary homograft endocarditis after Ross procedure.
We report the case of a 36-year-old patient who experienced an isolated acute pulmonary homograft endocarditis two years after a Ross procedure for aortic valve infective endocarditis.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Alain Deloche.
We report the case of a 36-year-old patient who experienced an isolated acute pulmonary homograft endocarditis two years after a Ross procedure for aortic valve infective endocarditis.
UNLABELLED: We report the usefulness of biventricular mechanical circulatory support in a 36-yr-old woman with refractory myocardial dysfunction resulting from scombroid poisoning. DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: Medical and surgical university care units. PATIENT: A previously healthy 36-yr-old woman with severe myocardial dysfunction unresponsive to epinephrine (1.3 microg/kg/min) and dobutamine (18 microg/kg/min) after the ingestion of cooked fresh tuna. INTERVENTION: Implantation at day 3 of a biventricular assist device consisting of two paracorporeal pneumatic pumps set at 70 beats/min to reach an output of 5.6 L/min during 8 days. MAIN RESULTS: The biventricular mechanical circulatory assist device allowed weaning of the inotropic drugs, maintenance of end-organ function, and support of the patient until myocardial recovery. The patient was successfully explanted 11 days after ingestion. Cardiac function had totally recovered, but a stroke was noted. At 3-yrs follow-up, there was no cardiac or neurologic sequela. CONCLUSIONS: This report describes severe myocardial dysfunction secondary to scombroid poisoning and demonstrates the usefulness of a mechanical circulatory assist device as a bridge to recovery.
A simple and quick technique to fashion a mitral ring was developed using a stainless steel wire covered by a Gore-Tex strip. This technique allows a 15-fold reduction in the cost of a mitral ring compared with commercially available rings. As such, cardiac surgery becomes more readily available to patients in developing countries such as Africa and Asia. These homemade rings were implanted in 6 patients with similar results to commercially available rings.
This study examines the incidence, predictors, and evolution of postoperative atrioventricular block (AVB) after mitral valve repair (MVR) in 115 consecutive patients using Carpentier's technique (between November 1996 and April 1997). Postoperative AVB occurred in 27 patients (23%). Third-degree AVB was found in 7 patients (6%) in the immediate postoperative period, but in 4 it was transient, resolving partially or completely before the seventh postoperative day. Second-degree AVB (Mobitz type I) occurred in 4 patients (3%) immediately after operation and resolved in all before hospital discharge. Isolated first-degree AVB occurred in 16 patients (14%) and was permanent in 12. Neither the preoperative variables nor the mitral procedures including anterior versus posterior leaflet repair were related to postoperative AVB. A lesser systemic hypothermia during surgery was the only, modestly independent predictor of postoperative AVB (odds ratio 1.53; 95% confidence interval 1.04 to 2.25; p = 0.031). Three patients (2.6%) had permanent pacemaker implantation, on average 18 days after operation, and all had persistent third-degree AVB. With a mean follow-up of 3 years, no recurrence or worsening of conduction disturbances, no further pacemaker implantation, and no late deaths were observed.
BACKGROUND: The surgical management of rheumatic aortic insufficiency in the young remains problematic owing to the drawbacks of prosthetic valve replacement at this age. In young foreign patients, for whom long-term anticoagulation therapy is unavailable, we have used a glutaraldehyde preserved autologous pericardium cusp extension technique to repair rheumatic aortic valve insufficiencies resulting from cusp retractions. METHODS: From September 1992 to December 2000, 89 consecutive patients with a mean age of 16 +/- 5 years underwent triple pericardial aortic cusp extension valvuloplasty. Eighty patients had pure aortic insufficiency, 9 had mixed aortic disease. Twenty-nine patients (33%) had isolated aortic valve disease and 60 patients (69%) had combined aortic and mitral valve disease with significant tricuspid valve disease in 21 (24%). Aortic repair consisted of free edge aortic cusp extension using three rectangular strips of glutaraldehyde stabilized autologous pericardium. Twenty-nine patients (33%) underwent an isolated aortic repair, 39 patients (44%) underwent combined aortic and mitral procedures (34 mitral repairs, 3 mitral homografts, and 2 prosthesis replacements), and 21 patients (23%) underwent a triple valve repair. RESULTS: The hospital mortality was 2.2%. Primary failure of the aortic repair requiring immediate reoperation occurred in 2 patients. During follow-up (mean of 62 +/- 22 months) 1 patient died and 7 underwent redo valvular surgery. At 5 years the actuarial survival rate was 96.4%, and 92.1% of the patients were free from redo valvular surgery. At 7 years 90% of the patients were free from valve-related complications. Among the 76 patients free from redo valvular surgery at follow-up, 6 had deterioration of the repair resulting in grade II aortic and mitral insufficiencies. CONCLUSIONS: Our midterm results of glutaraldehyde stabilized autologous pericardial aortic cusp extension are encouraging and suggest that this technique should be considered as a viable alternative palliative procedure in a young rheumatic population, allowing for growth of the annulus and delaying to a less critical period the need for the lifelong anticoagulation therapy required for a prosthetic mechanical valve.
The authors report here an unusual case of an ascending aorta aneurysm diagnosed in the event of a check-up for a dyspnea with cyanosis. The right atrium compression by the aneurysm initiated a right-to-left shunt through a patent foramen ovale.
BACKGROUND: Facing young foreign polyvalvular rheumatic patients, for which long-term anticoagulation is not available, we have chosen to attempt triple valve repair procedures in order to avoid prosthetic implantation in this particular population suffering from triple valve disease. METHODS: Twenty-one young rheumatic patients (mean age:11+/-4 years) underwent triple valve repair procedures including cusp extension on the aortic valve aortic between September, 1992 and December, 2000. Valvular pathology characteristics according to Carpentier's classification included mitral insufficiency type III post+II ant (n=10), type III post (n=4), type II ant (n=2), mitral stenosis (n=5), type III aortic insufficiency (n=21), type I (n=13) and type III (n=8) tricuspid insufficiency. RESULTS: Firstly, the mitral valve disease were corrected using Carpentier's techniques of repair: prosthetic ring annuloplasty (n=16), commissurotomy (n=12), chord transposition (n=11) or shortening (n=4), papillary muscle sliding plasty (n=4) and pericardial patch leaflet enlargement (n=6). Secondly, aortic lesions were corrected using glutaraldehyde stabilized autologous pericardium triple cusps extension technique (n=21). Lastly, tricuspid repairs were always performed on beating hearts using commissurotomy (n=8), prosthetic ring (n=12) or other techniques (n=9) of annuloplasty. The operative mortality was 4.7% (one patient died). Echocardiograms before discharge showed grade I mitral insufficiency in seven patients and grade I aortic insufficiency in five patients. There was no late death during a mean follow-up of 51+/-31 months. Two patients underwent valvular redo surgery because of aortic and mitral plasty deterioration due to rheumatic disease progress. After 5 years, 90% of the patients were free from redo valvular surgery. CONCLUSIONS: In rheumatic patients, autologous pericardial patch extension of the aortic valve permitted widespread use of reconstructive surgery even in patients suffering from triple valve disease. Triple valve repair, in this particular challenging setting of patients, has provided satisfactory initial and mid-term results and could be considered as an interesting palliative surgical approach.