• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.822-828
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• 1995

This paper reports 15 native valve endocarditis cases had surgical operation in the past 10 years at the department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Chonbuk National University Hospital. In this study, 10 cases out of 15 were in class I or II by the New York Heart Association functional classification. None of the cases had a history of taking addictive drugs. Five cases were congenital heart disease, three cases were rheumatic heart disease and two cases were degenerative heart disease. Thus 10 cases had the underlying disease. All cases had antibiotics treatment for 3 to 6 weeks before operation. In the culture test, only four cases were positive in the blood culture and one case was positive in the excised valve culture. Organisms on blood and valve culture were Streptococcus epidermis, Streptococcus viridans, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. In the 10 cases without ventricular septal defect, the aortic valve was involved in four, mitral in four, both in two and involved valves in the 5 cases with ventricular septal defect were tricuspid in three, pulmonic in two. Eight cases had operation because they showed moderate congestive heart failure due to valvular insufficiency and vegetation with or without embolism. Seven cases had operation because they showed persistent or progressive congestive heart failure and/or uncontrolled infection. Five cases with ventricular septal defect underwent the closure of ventricular septal defect, vegetectomy and leaflet excision of the affected valves without valve replacement. In the cases without ventricular septal defect, the affected valves were replaced with St. Jude mechanical prosthesis. Postoperative complications were recurrent endocarditis in two, embolism in one, allergic vasculitis in two, spleen rupture in one and postpericardiotomy syndrome in one. At the first postoperative day, one case died of cerebral embolism. At the 11th postoperative month, one case died of recurrent endocarditis and paravalvular leakage in spite of a couple of aortic valve replacement. In the survived cases[13 cases in this study , all cases but one became class I or II by the New York Heart Association functional classification.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 1999

Background: To review the middle and long term results of aortic valve replacement(AVR) for 11 years, we surveyed and followed up the patients who underwent AVR. Material and Method: Between Feb. 1986 and May 1997, 134 patients underwent AVR. The patients consisted of 71 men and 63 women whose mean age was 38.9 years, ranging from 17 to 70. Result: The concomitant operations were 62 mitral valve replacement(MVR), 14 MVR + tricuspid valve annuloplasty, 10 Cabrol operation, 16 aortic annulus widening, and so forth. We used 119 mechanical(75 St. Jude Medical, 38 CarboMedics, 6 Sorin) and 15 tissue (Carpentier-Edwards) valves. Early postoperative complications occurred in 35 cases; 9 congestive heart failure, 6 low cardiac output, 5 postoperative bleeding, 5 pleural effusion, and so forth. There were 13 early postoperative deaths(9.7%) due to low cardiac output(5), CHF (2), disseminated intravascular coagulopathy(2), and so forth. The cumulative total follow-up period was 452.7 patient-years with a mean of 3.4${\pm}$3.1 years/patient. There were 9 cases of valve-related complications; anticoagulant-related bleeding(4), prosthetic valve endocarditis(2), thromboembolism(2) and prosthetic valve failure(1) occured at rate of 0.9, 0.4, 0.4, 0.2%/ pt-yr, respectively. Late valve-related death occurred in 3 cases(2.0%/pt-yr) associated with anticoagulant-related bleeding(2) and prosthetic valve endocarditis(1). Conclusion: Actuarial survival rate by Kaplan-Meier method was 91.0${\pm}$4.3 % at 11 years.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.283-290
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• 1988

St. Jude Medical cardiac valve replacement was performed in 90 consecutive patients from Jan. 1984 to Dec. 1987. 54 had mitral, 12 had aortic and 24 had multiple valve replacement. Follow up extended for 1 to 47 months[mean 17.1 month] with a cumulative period of 1351 months. The overall actuarial survival rate at 4 years was 87.1% and overall hospital mortality was 6.7%. The linearlized incidence of thrombotic obstruction, thromboembolism, valve failure was 0.8% / pt. yr. each. The lower incidence of valve related mortality or morbidity was statistically significant. The performance of the St. Jude Medical mechanical valve was excellent compared to other substitute valves and has low incidence of thromboembolism or valve failure.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.817-824
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• 2007

Background: There are two choices for heart valve replacement-the use of a tissue valve and the use of a mechanical valve. Using a tissue valve, additional surgery will be problematic due to valve degeneration. If the risk of additional surgery could be reduced, the tissue valve could be more widely used. Therefore, we analyzed the risk factors and mortality of patients undergoing repeated heart valve replacement and primary replacement. Material and Method: We analyzed 25 consecutive patients who underwent repeated heart valve replacement and 158 patients who underwent primary heart valve replacement among 239 patients that underwent heart vale replacement in out hospital from January 1995 to December 2004. Result: There were no differences in age, sex, and preoperative ejection fraction between the repeated valve replacement group of patients and the primary valve replacement group of patients. In the repeated valve replacement group, the previously used artificial valves were 3 mechanical valves and 23 tissue valves. One of these cases had simultaneous replacement of the tricuspid and aortic valve with tissue valves. The mean duration after a previous operation was 92 months for the use of a mechanical valve and 160 months for the use of a tissue valve. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time and aortic cross clamp time were 152 minutes and 108 minutes, respectively, for the repeated valve replacement group of patients and 130 minutes and 89 minutes, respectively, for the primary valve replacement group of patients. These results were statistically significant. The use of an intra aortic balloon pump (IABP) was required for 2 cases (8%) in the repeated valve replacement group of patients and 6 cases (3.8%) in the primary valve replacement group of patients. An operative death occurred in one case (4%) in the repeated valve replacement group of patients and occurred in nine cases (5.1%) in the primary valve replacement group of patients. Among postoperative complications, the need for mechanical ventilation over 48 hours was different between the two groups. The mean follow up period after surgery was $6.5{\pm}3.2$ years. The 5-year survival of patients in the repeated valve replacement group was 74% and the 5-year survival of patients in the primary valve replacement group was 95%. Conclusion: The risk was slightly increased, but there was little difference in mortality between the repeated and primary heart valve replacement group of patients. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the issue of avoiding the use of a tissue valve due to the risk of additional surgery, and it is encouraged to use the tissue valve selectively, which has several advantages over the use of a mechanical valve. In the case of a repeated replacement, however, the mortality rate was high for a patient whose preoperative status was not poor. A proper as sessment of cardiac function and patient status is required after the primary valve replacement. Subsequently, a secondary replacement could then be considered.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2009

Background: The Ross procedure is known as a good surgical option for a young age group with aortic valve problems, but few reports on the Ross procedure are available in the Korean literature. This study is a review of our midterm results of 10 year experience with the pediatric Ross operation in Asan Medical Center. Material and Method: From March 1997 to October 2008, eighteen patients who were aged less than 16 years underwent the Ross procedure. There were 11 males and 7 females. The patients median age was 8.5 years (range: $0.5\sim14.0$). The aortic valve pathophysiology was 6 patients with aortic insufficiency, 4 patients with aortic stenosis, 7 patients with mixed aortic stenoinsufficiencey and 1 patient with infective endocarditis. The valve morphology was bicuspid in 11 and tricuspid in 7. All the patients were operated on with the root replacement technique. All the pumonic valves were replaced with an allograft except for one pericardial monocusp valve. The mean follow up duration was 52.8 months (range: 5.8$\sim$138.2 months). We reviewed the echocardiographic data with focusing on the, auto-graft dysfunction and reoperation. Result: There was no hospital mortality and late mortality. According to the last echocardiographic data, 2 autografts showed aortic regurgitation grade 2, 4 autografts showed aortic regurgitation grade 1 and the others were less than trivial. Reoperation of the pulmonic position conduit was performed 4 times in three patients. The rate of freedom from reoperation at 5 years was 72.2%. On the serial follow up, the Z-values of the aortic annulus/aortic sinus were changed from $1.6{\pm}1.7/0.9{\pm}1.7$ at preoperation to $1.8{\pm}1.6$(p=0.64)/$2.2{\pm}0.9$ (p=0.01) at the last follow-up. There was no significant relation between the growth of the neoaortic root and neoaortic insufficiency. Conclusion: Our midterm results of the Ross procedure in pediatric patients showed good autograft function and growth potential. Vet reoperation due to allograft dysfunction was a major concern.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.223-230
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• 1984

Since January 1977 to the end of September 1982, total 60 Ionescu-Shiley pericardial xenograft heart valves were implanted for valve replacement in 50 patients at the Han Yang University Hospital. The operative procedures were as follow: Mitral valve replacement [MVR] in 25 patients, Mitral valve replacement [MVR] and Tricuspid valve [TV] annuloplasty in 7 patients, Aortic valve replacement [AVR] in 8 patients, Aortic valve replacement [AVR] and Mitral valve replacement [MVR] in 8 patients. Aortic valve replacement [AVR] and Mitral valve replacement [MVR] and Tricuspid valve [TV] annuloplasty in 2 patients. To evaluate the immediate hemodynamic changes after valve replacements, the pressures of each cardiac chamber and ulmonary artery were checked before and after valve replacement on the operation table. Right ventricle [RV] pressure was decreased from 52.09\ulcorner6.71 to 45.57\ulcorner5.03 mmHg, Pulmonary artery [PA] pressure was decreased from 45.97\ulcorner2.69 to 41.00\ulcorner3.99 mmHg, and Left atrium [LA] pressure was decreased from 30.33\ulcorner13.02 to 22.76\ulcorner.97 mmHg before and after valve replacement. In MVR group, RV pressure was decreased from 49.17\ulcorner7.89 to 43.14\ulcorner4.14 mmHg, PA pressure was decreased from 44.67\ulcorner3.18 to 38.67\ulcorner2.85 mmHg, and LA pressure was decreased from 31.46\ulcorner13.47 to 21.91\ulcorner.17 mmHg. In AVR group, RV pressure was decreased from 53.0\ulcorner7.44 to 44.71 \ulcorner3.24 mmHg, PA pressure was decreased from 34.83\ulcorner0.73 to 31.86\ulcorner.36 mmHg, and LA pressure was not changed. In double valve replacement [MVR and AVR] group, RV pressure was decreased from 57.50\ulcorner3.82 to 42.50\ulcorner.80 mmHg, PA pressure was decreased from 51.17\ulcorner1.42 to 43.33\ulcorner4.53mmHig, and LA pressure was decreased from 34.33\ulcorner2.09 to 25.50\ulcorner0.21 mmHg. But in the group where MVR and TV annuloplasty were performed, preoperative RV and PA pressure were markedly increased and no pressure decrease in RV and PA noticed after valve replacement. This study shows good immediate postoperative hemodynamic results after valve replacement using Ionescu-Shiley xenograft valve except in the cases of MVR and TV annuloplasty and advanced disease with pulmonary hypertension.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.522-526
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• 1990

We have experienced 2 cases vocal cord paralysis after open heart surgery. One was a postoperatively developed right unilateral vocal cord paralysis after prosthetic mitral valve replacement with tricuspid valve annuloplasty. The other was a postoperative left unilateral vocal cord paralysis after prosthetic aortic and mitral valve replacement with tricuspid annuloplasty. They were intubated for forty-eight and seventy-two hours but after extubation complained of hoarseness, aphonia, anxiety, and ineffective coughing Indirect laryngoscopy performed at about postoperative one week, revealed partial paralysis and decreased mobility of the vocal cord. After active phonation therapy, symptoms were improved gradually and in the follow up indirect laryngoscopy, the vocal cord paralysis was improved. The symptoms were recovered completely at about postoperative one month in both. The cause of vocal cord paralysis after open heart surgery may be any retraction or stretching injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, especially right side, during median sternotomy retraction and open heart operation procedures. As a result, avoid of excessive spread of median sternotomy retractor and excessive manipulation and retraction of the heart during open heart procedures will reduce the occurrence of the vocal cord paralysis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.106-115
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• 1989

Clinical results with the xenograft cardiac valves were reviewed for 212 patients who underwent heart valve replacement from January 1981 to December 1987. One hundred and twenty-four Carpentier-Edwards k 88 Ionescu Shiley valves were used. Overall operative mortality was 11 out of 212[5.1%]: 5 out of 153[3.39o] for mitral valve replacement [MVR], 2 out of 34[5.9%] for aortic valve replacement [AVR], 0 out of 4[0%] for Tricuspid valve replacement [TVR], and 4 out of 21[19.1%] for double valve replacement [DVR;MVR+ AVR]. Two hundred and one operative survivors were followed up for a total of 824.3 patient-years [a mean 3.9*1.8 yrs], and the follow up was 78.1%. The linealized complication rates were 0.1% emboli / patient-year, 1.0% endocarditis/ patient-year and 2.2% overall valve failure / patient-year. A linealized rate of primary tissue failure was 0.7*/o/ patient-year. The actuarial survival rates including the operative mortality were 92*2.8% at 4 years and 85*4.3% at 7 years after surgery using the Xenograft cardiac valves. Probabilities of freedom from thromboembolism and overall valve failure were 73*11.0% and 69*2.4% at 7 years after surgery using the Xenograft cardiac valves respectively. The intrinsic durability of the Xenograft cardiac valves appears to be relatively well satisfactory over the long term [4 to 7 years] and the risk of failure appears well balanced by the advantages of a low incidence of thromboembolism and no mandatory anticoagulant therapy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.701-703
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• 2007

Coronary artery vasospasm results in transient, abrupt chest pain that's due to the increased vasomotor tone of the coronary artery, and this can cause myocardial ischemia. We report here or one case of the right coronary artery vasospasm after aortic valve replacement surgery, and this was due to severe aortic regurgitation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.260-263
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• 2008

We performed three cases of extraanatomic bypass graft for treating adult coarctation. Two cases of left subclavian artery to descending aorta bypass graft were done via left thoracotomy for treating 2 patients who had extensive aortic occlusive disease. One case of ascending aorta to descending aorta bypass graft and aortic valve replacement was done via median sternotomy for a patient who had combined arch hypoplasia and aortic valve regurgitation. One patient was reoperated on for aneurysm rupture of an anastomosis site four months after the first operation and two patients have had no specific problems during and after their operations.