[Traumatic interventricular communication and tricuspid insufficiency. Surgical repair. Apropos of a case. Review of the literature].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J J Doumeix.
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103 patients with atrial fibrillation lasting more than 15 days were treated by cardioversion, with a return to normal sinus rhythm in 92 per cent of cases. If the atrial fibrillation recurred during the first six months, a further electric shock was given and the treated was changed or better adapted to the patient. The sinus rhythm was maintained in 85.7 per cent of patients at one year, 84.4 per cent at 2 years, 80.1 per cent at 3 years and 76.1 per cent at 4 years. The factors which predict a good result are: sex, the presence of mitral valve disease, especially when it has been operated, good tolerance of the arrhythmia and good haemodynamic status prior to the shock. The treatment used were quinidine arabogalactane sulfate (QAGS) and amiodarone. QAGS was better tolerated, while amiodarone proved to be more effective.
Two cases of septicaemia on endocavitary cardiac pacemaker probes lead the authors to discuss the aetiological and therapeutic aspects of this type of infection. In both cases, the pacemaker had been in situ for a long time and had been replaced on several occasions, there was infection in the site of implantation and an attempt at removal of all of the pacemaker material failed, leaving a probe incarcerated in the right ventricle by one of its extremities with the other extremity floating free. The endocarditis associated with this septicaemia can, theoretically, be due to two mechanisms: metastatic implantation of infection form a distant site which must be detected or infection developing in contact with the pacemaker and propagated along the probe. The treatment of this type of septicaemia consists of appropriate antibiotics, which are only rarely sufficient to sterilize the infection. In most cases, all of the pacemaker material must be removed, which is easily achieved in the majority of cases. After cleansing of the site, the pacemaker has been successfully replaced. Sometimes, the probe is buried in the myocardium: surgical removal by cardiotomy, with or without extracorporeal circulation, seems to be preferable to the techniques of continuous traction which carry certain risks (tricuspid and myocardial lesions). Persistent floating probes must be removed surgically.
Mitral valve prolapse is the most common form of heart disease, as it occurs in 4 to 6 per cent of the population. It has a benign course in the majority of cases, but 5 types of severe complication can occur in 15 per cent of cases. Mitral incompetence occurs in 14.8 per cent of cases. It may develop gradually or suddenly, following rupture of the chordae, which requires rapid surgical repair. Mitral valve prolapse is complicated by infectious endocarditis in 2.9 per cent of cases, hence the need for antibiotic prophylaxis prior to dental treatment or surgery in patients with a pan-systolic or end-systolic murmur. The only arrhythmias which should be considered as complications and treated as such are frequent ventricular extrasystoles of more than 30 per hour, usually associated with bigeminy, runs or polymorphism, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. Treatment consists, primarily, of beta-blockers. Sudden death is of course the major complication, occurring in 1.4 to 2.4 per cent of cases. The patients at risk of this complication are middle-aged women (40 years) with a past history of syncope or faintness due, in most cases, to episodes of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Apart from arrhythmia, coronary artery spasm has also been found to be a cause of sudden death in these patients. Transient or definitive ocular and cerebral ischaemic episodes can also complicate mitral valve prolapse. Mitral valve prolapse is found in 20 to 30 per cent of patients with neurological accidents before the age of 45. Preventative treatment consists of anti-platelet aggregation agents and anticoagulants in recurrent cases.
The diagnosis of dissection of the aorta is based on clinical examination, echocardiography and angiography of the aortic arch. Continuous Döppler ultrasonography may also be useful as a very suggestive abnormality of the wave form can be recorded from the dissected vessels, comprising a deep early mid systolic notch which gives the wave a double hump appearance. This phenomenon, observed in two type I dissections, was recorded from the right subclavian and vertebral arteries in the first case in which the initial components of the systolic wave of the right carotid artery were also amputated. In the second case, the phenomenon was recorded from all vessels arising from the aortic arch. The underlying mechanism could be herniation of the false into the true arterial lumen leading to temporary obstruction of systolic ejection. Another possibility is the successive recording of blood flow first in the true and then in the false lumen. Midsystolic Döppler abnormalities have also been described in aortic regurgitation, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, atheromatous plaques causing a valve effect; however, the timing, morphology and extension of these abnormalities are quite different. In practice, the finding of this abnormality is an additional argument in favour of the diagnosis of dissection of the aorta. Continuous Döppler ultrasonography is also a good method of assessing the peripheral consequences of the dissection.
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100 patients with poorly tolerated calcific aortic stenosis underwent aortic valve replacement by the same surgical team (Starr-Edwards prosthesis: 52 cases, Bjäork prosthesis: 43 cases, Lillehei-Kaster prosthesis: 2 cases, and Hancock bioprosthesis: 3 cases) between July 1971 and April 1978. The hospital mortality was 17% and acute pulmonary oedema and cardiomegaly were poor preoperative prognostic factors. The late mortality was 14.5% with an average follow-up period of 25 months (range: 2 to 74 months). The survival rate expressed as an actuarial graph was 63.1 +/- 4% at 4 years. 90% of the patients operated move up at least one class in the New York Heart Association classification and 2/3 return to Stage I. The cardiothoracic ratio improved from 0.58 +/- 0.06 to 0.51 +/- 0.03 (p less than 0.02) and the Soko low-Lyon index from 40 +/- 13 to 25 +/- 6 (p less than 0.001). The main complication encountered at middle term was haemorrhage, observed in 17.5% patients. Comparison of the spontaneous outcome of the disease with the results of surgery favour surgical treatment of patients over 70 years old with poorly tolerated calcific aortic stenosis. The valve of choice should be the bioprosthesis when dependance on anticoagulant therapy and the associated risks of haemorrhage are taken into consideration.
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100 patients over the age of 70 years underwent coronary angiography. The indications for this examination at this age were different from those in younger patients. After the age of 70 years, 58 per cent of coronary angiographies are performed as part of the haemodynamic survey of valvular disease. The risk of the examination appears to be higher, as two deaths occurred in this small series, while the mortality is estimated to be 2 per thousand in younger patients. Coronary angiography is very useful at this age in patients with valvular disease to determine the need for an associated coronary graft and also to determine contraindications for operation because of the severity of the lesions. A surgical indication was confirmed in 50 patients, but surgery was only performed in 36 of them. The follow-up of these patients demonstrates that patients operated for valvular disease had a longer survival that those considered to be inoperable or who refused operation. On the other hand, there was no difference in survival between grafted and non-operated patients over the age of 70 years.
The degree of severity of coronary artery lesions and the quality of the distal vessels which justify revascularisation by by-pass grafting were studied in 1,000 consecutive cases of coronary angiography. The results are presented in terms of the clinical indication for coronary angiography and in terms of the patients' age and sex. 47% of patients were investigated because of unstable angina and 53% of them had surgical lesions. 16% of the angiographies were performed three weeks after myocardial necrosis. 45% of these patients had a surgical lesion in a coronary territory other than that of the necrotic area. In 20% of cases, the coronary angiography was performed as part of the pre-operative work-up for valvular heart disease. 17% of these operations combined a by-pass graft with the valve replacement. Independent of the indication for coronary angiography, 20% of cases had major coronary artery stenoses which reduced the lumen by more than 70% and which were inoperable.
The authors report a case of traumatic ventricular septal defect associated with tricuspid incompetence after blunt injury of the chest. This case is the third one described in the literature. This case includes several unusual features: (1) the patient was a 52 year old man. Wounds of the heart usually happen to younger people; (2) clinical manifestations were immediately important; (3) there was a left bundle branch block on the electrocardiogram; (4) surgical treatment was performed as an emergency (less than a fortnight after the accident).
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