• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.768-773
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• 2004

Failure of mitral valve repair sometimes may be ascribed to severe or progressive alteration of the subvalvar apparatus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of new chordae formation on mitral repair. Material and Method: From March 1997 to february 1999, 26 patients underwent mitral valve repairs with new chordae formation, we compared the symptoms and echocardiographic findings checked at preoperative state, and intraoperative period, discharge, and their last OPD visit. There were 45 male, and 11 female patients, and their mean age was 51.2$\pm$43.4 years. Etiology of the lesions was degenerative (18), rheumatic (6), infective (1) and ischemic (1). Chordal lesions were caused by rupture (18), elongation (6), and a combination of two causes (2). Associated lesions included atrial septal defect (2), tricuspid insufficiency (7), aortic insufficiency(4), and a combination of previous two factors (2). The number of mean artificial chordae was 3.6$\pm$1.6. Annuloplasty was per-formed in all cases. The CPB time was 182,1$\pm$63.7 minutes and the ACC time was 133.1$\pm$45.6 minutes. Aver-age follow up period was 49.2$\pm$7.1 months. Result: There was no early death. Early reoperation was performed in bud patients, one patient received mitral valve replacement because of an abnormality of annuloplasty and ano-ther received pericardiostomy due to postoperative pericardial effusion. During the follow up of 49.2$\pm$7.1 moths, there was no late mortality. Postoperative NYHA functional class checked at last OPD visit was class I in 22 patients (88%), class II in 2 (8%), and class III in 1 (4%). Regarding the late echocardiogram MR was absent in 20 patients (78%), 1 in 4 (15%), and II in 1 (4%). The postrepair mitral valve area was 2.2$\pm$0.35 $\textrm{cm}^2$ Conclusion: This study suggests that mitral valve repair using new chordae formation provides good early and mid term survivals and functional improvement. We think that the artificial chorda formation with polytetrafluoroethylene suture might be safe and effective technique for mitral valve repair.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.7 s.252
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• pp.507-509
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• 2005

Open heart surgery via right thoracotomy can be accomplished in atrial septal defects, and mitral valve diseases. Recently, thoracoscopic atrial septal defect closure, mitral valve repair, Maze operation, and minimal invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) are accomplished with AESOP 3000. However, there is no report of thoracoscopic aortic valve replacement in Korea. We report a successful thoracospic aortic valve replacement assisted with AESOP 3000 in a 31-year-old female patient.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.812-819
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• 2003

Background: Left ventricular dysfunction is one of the important prognostic factors of early mortality and long-term survival after valve operation. We studied the intermediate term results of mitral valve reconstruction in patients with moderate to severe left ventricular dysfunction. Material and Method: Forty four patients who underwent mitral valve reconstruction with a left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) of <45% or less (20∼45%) from April 1995 through July 2001 were reviewed retrospectively. Ages ranged from 10 to 67 years (46∼14 years) and 32 patients were in NYHA class III-IV. The mitral valve diseases were regurgitation (MR) in 28 patients, stenosis(MS) in 10, and mixed lesion in 5. The etiologies of mitral valve disease were rheumatic in 20 patients, degenerative in 14, ischemic in 5, annular dilatation in 2, congenital in 2, and endocarditis in 1. Operatively, all patients had annuloplasty and/or various valvuloplasty techniques, and a total of 52 procedures were concomitantly performed. Total cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic crossclamp time were 160$\pm$57 minutes and 112$\pm$45 minutes respectively. Result: Two operative deaths occurred as a result of left ventricular failure (4.5%). After the mean follow-up of 39 months (range, 10∼83 months), there was no late death. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed no or grade I of MR in 29 patients (72.5%) and no or mild MS in 35 patients (87.5%). The actuarial survival at 5 years was 100%. Four patients required mitral valve replacement due to progressive mitral valvular disease. The actuarial freedom from valve-related reoperation at 5 years was 84$\pm$9%. Conclusion: This study suggests that mitral valve reconstruction in patients with moderate to severe left ventricular dysfunction offers good early and intermediate survival and acceptable freedom from valve-related reoperation, and it is the strategy for effective management for these patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.619-626
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• 2010

Background: The indications and the optimal time of surgery of infective endocarditis are controversial. We report the surgical results of our hospital during the last 10 years with literature review. Material and Method: Between January 2000 and December 2009, we enrolled 23 infective endocarditis patients who underwent surgery, and analyzed retrospectively. In the preoperative blood culture, 8 cases (34.8%) were positive. The average preoperative antibiotics treatment period was $20.78{\pm}16.00$ days. There were 12 (52.2%) urgent operations. The average follow up period was $49.26{\pm}33.21$ months. Result: 20 mechanical valve replacements were performed, 9 in aortic position, 8 in mitral position and 3 in the both positions. The other procedures were one mitral valvuloplasty, one infected myxoma extirpation, and one infected pacemaker lead removal with debridement. The average period of postoperative intravenous antibiotic treatment was $24.39{\pm}15.98$ days. There were 5 complications, including 2 cases of postoperative bleeding, one postcardiotomy syndrome, one cerebral ischemia, and a low cardiac output syndrome. There were statistically significant postoperative improvement in NYHA class, left ventricle end diastolic/end systolic volume, and left atrium size (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: We could obtain the satisfactory results without any moftalities by using sufficient preoperative antibiotics in hemodynamically stable patients, and by prompt surgery in unstable patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.423-429
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• 2008

Background: The interest in robotic cardiac surgery has recently grown but there has not been much clinical research reported on this. The aim of this study is to examine our initial experience, since August 2007, with robotic cardiac surgery using the da $Vince^{TM}$ surgical system and to evaluate the feasibility and safety of it. Material and Method: Between August and December 2007, a total of 20 patients underwent robotic cardiac surgery using the da Vinci surgical system. For mitral valve repair (n=11), tricuspid valve repair (n=1), and ASD repair (n=1), cannulation, antegrade cardioplegia and transthoracic aortic cross-clamping were conducted for the right femoral vessels and the right internal jugular vein. For minimally invasive direct CABG (MIDCAB) (n=7), the internal thoracic artery (ITA) was harvested with the da Vinci surgical system. Result: The mean age of the patients was 50.1 (range: $26{\sim}78$) years. Three concomitant Maze procedures and one tricuspid annuloplasty were combined with mitral valve repair. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was $208.0{\pm}61.3$ minutes and the aortic cross clamp time was $158.8{\pm}40.6$ minutes. No patients showed more than mild mitral regurgitation after repair and the median hospital stay was 4 days. The robotic-harvested ITA was used for either left ITA (n=6) or bilateral ITA (n=1). The mean harvest time was $43.2{\pm}12.0$ minutes. The harvested ITA showed good flow and it was anastomosed under direct vision after left anterolateral thoracotomy. The patency of all the grafts was 100% (18/18) in MIDCAB. Conclusion: Robotic cardiac surgery using the da Vinci surgical system was variously adapted to areas such as mitral and tricuspid valve repair, ASD repair and ITA harvest for MIDCAB. The early results of the robotic cardiac surgery showed its safety and feasibility. With this primary report, we anticipate that clinical applications and further studies on robotic cardiac surgery using the da Vinci surgical system will be actively conducted in Korea.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.316-320
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• 2003

Background: The detection of circulating microemboli by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) has the potential to select the patients with high risk for future symptomatic brain embolism. We prospectively evaluated the positive rate and the frequency of microembolic signals (MES) before and after the heart valve surgery (HVS). Material and Method: Fifty in-patients with heart valve disease were enrolled in this study. Patients with history of previous stroke or heart valve surgery were excluded. Two unilateral TCD monitoring sessions were peformed from middle cerebral artery for 1-hour, before and after HVS. Result: Mechanical Heart valves were implanted in 28 patients, tissue valves were implanted in 10 patients, and remaining 12 patients received mitral valve repair. Positive rate of MES was significantly increased after HVS (50%), compared to that of before HVS (8%, p=0.00). There was no relation between MES after HVS and intensity of anticoagulation, cardiac rhythm, patients' age, and history of hypertension. The positive rate of MES after implantation of mechanical heart valve (71.4%) was significantly higher than those after implantation of tissue valve or mitral valve plasty (p=0.002). Conclusion: Positive rate of MES was increased significantly after the implantation of HVS. The changes of MES in those with mechanical prosthesis may be related to the increased risk or embolism after Hvs.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.200-204
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• 1997

This is a report of a successful management of a patient with infective endocarditis involving native aortic valve, mitral valve, tricuspid valve, and Interventric lar septum. A 16 year-old patient who underwent VSD patch closure, and aortic valvuloplasty at the age of 1 1 years showed Intractable congestive heart failure during antibiotics treatment for infective endocarditis. Operative findings revealed that there were large defect along the previous patch, aortic regurgitation with multiple perforations and vegetations, mitral regurgitation with vegetation, aortic paraannular abscess, interventricular myocardial abscess, and tricuspid regurgitation with perforations and vegetations. We reconstructed the interventricular defect with Dacron patch extending to the aortic valve annulus after radical debridement of all infected or devitalized tissues, and could implant aortic valve by anchoring to the reconstructed Dacron patch. Mitral valve was replaced and tricuspid valve was repaired with patient's own pericardium. The patient was discharged after antibiotics treatment for 6 weeks and in good condition without any sequelae for 12 months.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 1996

Between January 1992 and February 1995, 36 patients with mitral regurgitation were treated by a mitral repair There wert nineteen men and seventeen women whose mean age was 41.8 years, ranged from 10 to 71. Seventeenth patients had dystrophic change of mitral valve, twelve patients had rheumatic change of mitral valve, second patients had infective change of mitral valve and another fifth patients had functional change of mitral valve. Operation proced res were suture annuloplasty (35 cases), resection of leaflet (25 cases), chordal shortening(9 cases) and commisurotomy(1 cases). These procedures were combined in most patients. Two third of the patients were in New York Heart Association class III or IV and four fifth of the patients were in mitral regurgitation grade III or IV by doppler echocardiogram. After mitral valve repair, the patients were improved hemodynamic, echocardiographic data and functional class. Intraoperative TEE had been used in all most patients after weaning of bypass. If there remained MR more than grade 2, the valve was re-repaired or replacement. There were no operative death. The late mortality was 5.5% and cause of death was congestive heart failure. Patients have been followed up from 3 to 40 months, mean 15. Second patients underwant reoperation due to recurred mitral regurgitation, 4 and 19 days after the operation. During reoperation, we found that the repair suture was disrupted in both patients. Th s expierence demonstrated that intraoperative TEE is accurate and predictable and excellent immediate and mid-term results have been achieved by mitral valve repair.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2008

Background: Anatomic and functional abnormalities of the systemic atrioventricular (AV) valve are common in single ventricle. pathologies and continue to be associated with poor early and late outcomes in surgically palliated single. ventricle patients. We aggressively performed valvuloplasty for atrioventricular valve regurgitation (AVVR) during the course toward a Fontan operation. Material and Method: Between January 1995 and December 2004, 209 patients underwent a Fontan operation in our institution. We retrospectively evaluated the prevalence of AVVR and the influence of AV valve repair on outcome, and we analyzed the progression of AVVR after the Fontan operation for 168 patients where echocardiographic follow up results for more than 6 months after the Fontan operation were available. During the course toward a Fontan operation, 25 patients underwent 30 procedures for AVVR. These procedures. were. carried out during placement of a bidirectional cavopulmonary shunt (BCPS) for nine patients, between the time of placement of a BCPS and the Fontan operation for four patients, and during the Fontan operation for 17 patients. Five patients underwent procedures for AVVR twice. Result: The late mortality rate after the Fontan operation was 4.2% (n=7), with a median follow-up duration of 52 months (range, $6{\sim}123$ months). Seven patients (4%) had unfavorable outcomes such as significant (moderate or severe) AVVR in six patients, and significant AV valve stenosis in one patient was determined at the last follow up after the Fontan operation. Among the seven patients, four patients underwent AV valve repair after the Fontan operation, and one patient underwent subsequent AV valve replacement. Progression to AVVR of equal to or greater than grade 2 was noted in 30 patients (18%) at the last follow up after the Fontan operation, including 12 patients that underwent previous AV valve procedures. Initial grading of AVVR, a previous AV valve operation, and specific AV valve morphology such as a common AV valve or mitral atresia were significant risk factors for the progression of AVVR after the Fontan operation. Conclusion: In our surgical series, a small percentage of patients showed unfavorable outcomes. related to AVVR during the course toward a Fontan operation. However, a closer follow-up is required to evaluate the progression of the AVVR after a Fontan operation, especially for patients showing poor AV valve function at the first presentation and specific AV valve morphology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.81 no.2
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• pp.290-301
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• 2020

The surgical technique of mitral valvuloplasty or transcatheter mitral valve (MV) replacement has been developed recently. Surgeons and interventionists require detailed anatomical information on the MV for the purpose of treatment planning. In this review, we discussed the anatomic features of the MV on CT and the method of evaluating the MV for treatment planning, as well as its preservation, for interventional procedures.