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Biomedical subjects

R Soyer

Publications and source records attributed to R Soyer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Prevention of post-operative infection in heart surgery with extracorporeal circulation (apropos of 295 cases)].

From April 1977 to November 1978, 295 patients were operated on using artificial circulation. 31 p. 100 of these developed a post-operative infectious complication, 7.3 p. 100 being of a serious nature (3.3 p. 100 suffered from mediastinitis, and 4 p. 100 from septicaemia). The organisms responsible are, in the case of the mediastinal infections the staphylococcus Citreus, and Gram negative bacilli in the case of the septicaemias. A retrospective analysis shows that there are two successive periods and that in the course of the second there is a decrease in the occurence of all of the infections and particularly in the cases of mediastinitis. This improvment would seem on superficial analysis to correspond with a change in the preventive antibiotic treatment, the cephradine--gentamicin combination having replaced penicillin G. However, the statistical study shows that other factors were altered between the two periods (type of antiseptic, duration of treatments, time of postoperative intubation) and that these equally contributed to the fall in the incidence of infection. In the light of this study, it would seem that if prophylactic antibiotic treatment essentially directed against staphylococci has a place in cardiac surgery with artificial circulation, it can only be regarded as one of several preventive factors. The statistical data gathered so far is not sufficient to prove the efficacy of this treatment.

Adolescent

Large ventricular aneurysms occurring after myocardial infarction.

We have studied 33 patients with a large ventricular aneurysm complicating an anterior myocardial infarction. The features of myocardial infarction progressing towards an aneurysm were no previous history of coronary disease, severe infarction as shown by the severity of pain and the presence of pericardial rub and heart failure, and large increase in serum levels of cardiac enzymes. A large aneurysm usually follows a large infarction resulting from the total or partial occlusion of the left anterior descending artery, which is involved alone in about half the patients and is associated with lesions of the circumflex and right coronary arteries in the other half. In most cases, standard radiography showed an abnormal cardiac configuration, but in 7 patients (21%) there was no radiological evidence of aneurysm. ST segment elevation (mean 2.7 mm) was reported in all subjects but one. Heart failure was present in most patients and was an indication for surgical treatment in one-third of the patients. A large aneurysm was not a contraindication to operation even when at angiography the aneurysm seemed to occupy almost all the left ventricle. Twenty-one patients were operated upon for resection of the aneurysm with a mortality rate of 14 per cent.

Adult

[Analysis of factors which can influence results of aortocoronary bypass surgery].

The various factors influencing the result of treatment have been studied in a series of 100 consecutive patients undergoing aorto-coronary bypass graft surgery. There were three operative deaths and twelve cases of post-operative infarction. Longterm, 85% of them were three year survivors, clinical improvement being maintained in 84% of them. Post-operative tests showed that 70% of patients have no pain on the maximal exercise test, but 48% had ischaemic depression of the ST segment. From among the 47 patients who had follow-up arteriography, 78% of the grafts were patent, but no improvement of the contractility of the left ventricle could be demonstrated (pre-operative ejection fraction 47 +/- 3%, post-operative 49+/- 3%). The pre-operative clinical features rarely give any indication of the prognosis. The same is true in the present series of the condition of the left ventricle, bearing in mind the fact that patients with grossly impaired ventricular contractility (ejection fraction below 30%) were routinely excluded from surgery. It is essentially the state of the coronary arterial network, as assessed by a score made up from the degree and number of stenoses, the quality of the distal bed, and the anatomical distribution, which will pick out those patients more at risk both from the surgery and from post-operative death and in whom the longterm result is likely to be disappointing with no improvement in function, with obstruction of the grafts, or with secondary death.

Adult

[Constrictive fibrous endocarditis. Surgical treatment].

An anatomo-clinical entity, fibrous constrictive endocarditis can betreated srugically, and we carried out this procedure for the first time in 1971, since when we have used it seven times; it consists of an internal stripping of one or both centricles, with removal of one or both the mitral and tricuspid valves. The results were encouraging in the first two cases, and so good in the succeeding ones that this endocardial resection could be put forward as the treatment of choice for a condition whose aetiology is still unclear.

Adult

[Choice of surgical method in the child or adult (excluding infants) suffering from coarctation of the aorta and severe cardiopathy].

A study of a serie of 45 cases of coarctation of the aorta associated with a severe cardiac lesion or malformation, and treated at a single operative session (18 cases) or in two consecutive stages (27 cases) has produced the following conclusions: --Treatment at a single operation is possible, usually at the cost of two consecutive surgical approaches, thus making the operation rather long. This plan, which has given good results in the 18 cases studied (only one death and no serious complications) should be adopted only for young patients who are well-balanced psychologically, and whose cardiac defect is well-compensated. --Treatment in two stages is a more reasonable course for the remainder of the patients, but it must be decided which lesion to treat first: this could be the coarctation if it is a difficult or poorly tolerated one and if the cardiac defect (especially when an aortic valve lesion) is well compensated. It will be the cardiac lesion if, by contrast, the coarctation is simple and well-tolerated, and the cardiac lesion is severe and decompensated (especially a mitral malformation with shunts and major pulmonary hypertension). Current techniques of open heart surgery allow us to employ extracorporeal circulation easily and safely with the coarctation still in place; this will then be treated later. In every case in which a two-stage treatment plan has been chosen, it should be carried out as a planned procedure so that the second stage of the operation is not put off unduly.

Adolescent

[Surgical treatment of the double outlet right ventricle with pulmonary stenosis. Apropos of 7 cases].

The double outlet right ventricle is a rare malformation, and its surgical correction has been well defined. The authors present seven cases of double outflow of the right ventricle and stenosis of the pulmonary outflow. If the technical problems of those variants with a subaortic septal defect seem to have been overcome, those with a subpulmonary ventricular septal defect present a much more difficult problem. Of the seven cases presented, the authors report the death of one patient who had a right ventricle with a double outlet associated with pulmonary stenosis and a sub-pulmonary ventricular septal defect. The post-operative course of the other 6 patients, who had a subaortic ventricular septal defect, was simple. One patient suffered secondary dehiscence of the repaired septal defect, and was reoperated on. The maximum follow-up period has been 7 years.

Adolescent

[Valve replacement in case of a partial atrioventricular canal. A propos of 17 cases].

In 17 patients with a partial form of atrioventricular canal, at least one valve was replaced. The mitral valve was the most commonly affected (16 cases), sometimes in association with the tricuspid valve (5 cases) or the aortic valve (1 case); the tricuspid valve alone was replaced in one case. 7 cases were ranked as operative deaths, and the longer term mortality was of 4 cases. The factors leading to this high mortality figure are discussed. The future treatment policy for this condition is discussed.

Adolescent