• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 1984

Prosthetic valve replacement has resulted in marked improvement in the functional status of many patients with valvular heart disease. But valve failure from various causes has necessitated re-replacement of prosthetic valve in some of these patients. This selective group of patients has many inherent problems. This report presents our experience with seven patients who received re-replacement of prosthetic valve in the Seoul National University Hospital from 1981, to 1983. The patients included one woman and six men in the range of 9 and 49 years old. As the first valve operations, there were five MVR using tissue valves, one DVR [Bjork-Shiley and Ionescu-Shiley valve] and one case of modified Bentall operation with composite graft [Ionescu-Shiley valve]. Reoperations on prosthetic valve failure were performed 17 to 54 months after the first operation [mean 34 months]. Amon8 seven patients, there were two cases of prosthetic valve endocarditis and five cases of primary tissue failure. Gross calcification of the xenograft was found in two children with Ionescu-Shiley valve. All except one had relatively successful operative results. The unsuccessful one died intraoperatively from low output syndrome.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.655-662
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• 1985

From January 1985 to July 1985, prosthetic heart valves were replaced in 5 patients at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. The patients included three women and two men ranging in age from 22 to 41 years. Three mitral valve replacements, one aortic valve replacement and one double valve replacement [mitral and aortic valve replacement] were done at the first valve operations. Reoperation were performed 2 to 76 months after the first operations, Prosthetic valve endocarditis occurred in 3 patients, early in one and late in two and primary valve failure occurred in 2 patients. In operative findings, vegetation in prosthetic valve endocarditis and calcification in primary valve failure were found. All except one had relatively successful operative results. One died of early fungal prosthetic valve endocarditis due to relapsed prosthetic valve endocarditis with heart failure and block.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.951-959
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• 1989

Between September, 1972 and September, 1989, total 359 patients were operated for acquired heart disease at Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Hanyang University Hospital. A consecutive series of 293 prosthetic valve replacement was also performed during this period. The results were summarized as follows; 1. There were 141 men and 218 women, whose ages ranged from 6 to 64 years, [mean 35.5 years] 2. Out of 293 cases, mitral valve replacement was 182 cases, aortic valve replacement was 39 cases and double valve replacement was70 cases. 3. Early post-operative death was 30 cases [Mortality; 8.4 %] and late death was 9 cases in the survivors. 4. Re-operation was 30 cases and operative mortality was 10%. 5. Mean post-operative interval was 76 months. [Ranged from 216 months to 2 months] 6. Among re-operation cases, primary prosthetic valve failure was 16 cases and paravalvular leakage was 2 cases. 7. Since January 1988, 79 cases of prosthetic valve replacement were performed and then 1 case was expired. [Mortality; 1.2 %]

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 1991

Since advent of the prosthetic cardiac valve replacement, much efforts for accurate assessing value function in-vivo have been attempted. To evaluate the postoperative functional and morphological status of the replaced cardiac valve prosthesis, 33 patients with valve replacement were studied by transthoracic and transesophageal 2-dimensional echocardiac imaging as well as by color Doppler flow velocity imaging. Twenty four patients had mitral valve replacement. 6 patients had aortic valve replacement and 3 patients had both mitral and aortic valve replacement. There were 34 mechanical and 2 biological prosthesis. Comparing to transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal approach showed transvalvular regurgitant jet flow amid the prosthetic mitral valve ring during. systole and much clear visualization of cardiac chamber behind prosthesis which could give shadowing effect to ultrasound beam. According to the quantitative grading by the length and area of mitral regurgitant flow, 24 out of 27 mitral valves revealed mild degree regurgitation considered as physiological after prosthetic bileaflet valve replacement and the other 3 valves including 2 biological prosthesis had moderate degree regurgitation which was regarded as pathologic one. 2 cases of left atrial thromboses and 1 case of paravalvular leakage which were not visible by transthoracic approach were identified by transesophageal echocardiography in patients with mitral valve replacement and patients with aortic valve replacement respectively. We conclude that in patients with prosthetic mitral valve replacement, transesophageal 2-dimensional imaging with color Doppler can suggest reliable information beyond that available from the transthoracic access even though it gives patient some discomfort to proceed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.207-214
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• 1976

Operations for cardiac valvular disease has been progressed in various ways. Since 1949 when Lord Russel operated mitral stenosis by closed technique at Johns Hopkins Hospital then much progress has been achieved and that nowadays severely diseased cardiac valve has been replaced by prosthetic valve, which is almost ideal in hemodynamic aspect, but still it has many problems such as thromboembolism, destruction of red blood cell, pressure gradient, and disturbance of left ventricular function, so in case of delicate situations, valve replacement should be decided carefully. Besides prosthetic valve, there are some kinds of reconstructive procedures and these have been resulted in better prognosis than prosthetic valve replacement in selected cases. So, authors have reviewed 61 Cases of cardiac patients who have been operated reconstructive valvular surgery by cardiopulmonary bypass, at Yonsei University, from Jan. 1963 to Mar. 1976. Out of 61 cases, 9 patients were replaced by prosthetic valve and rest of the patients were operated upon in various reconstructive procedures such as commissurotomy, valvotomy, valvuloplasty, and annuloplasty. Twenty cases of congenital heart diseases with valvular lesion, which had been operated for valvular lesion were also included in this statistics. Out of 9 cases of prosthetic valvular replacement five cases of prosthetic valvular replacement was done combined with other reconstructive procedures after attempted valvuloplasty. Comparative prognosis of both procedures are somewhat variable by reporters, average 19% of mortality after reconstructive surgery and 38% of mortality after prosthetic valve replacement in long term results. Most common cause of death in postoperative period was low output syndrome in both cases. It seems that good preoperative evaluation and proper reconstructive surgery will afford good prognosis in selected cardiac valvular diseased patient.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.164-170
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• 1996

From January 1986 to June 1993, 12 patients Aad required reoperation: 9 had undergone mitral and 3 aortic valve replacement. Five were male and 7 female, and ages ranged from 29 to 61 years. Replacement of the prosthetic heart valve was performed at a mean interval of 98 $\pm$ 1 months after the Hrst operation. In aortic valve replacement patients the mean interval was 115 $\pm$ 2 months and in mitral valve replacement patients 98 $\pm$ 4 months. Primary tissue failure was the most frequent reason of replacement (10 patients) followed by valve thrombosis (1 patient) and prophylactic replacement (1 patient) in order. The most pronounced pathology of the failed prosthetic heart valves seen in the primary tissue failure group was calcification, perforation, shrinkage and tearing of the cusps. There was one early operative death (8.3%) due to intractable low cardiac output and acute renal failure. Eleven early survivors had successful operative results and there was no late death.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.655-658
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• 1987

Aortic annulus size was measured by two-dimensional echocardiography [2DE] in 29 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement or double valve replacement in order to predict prosthetic aortic valve size. Fifteen patients had aortic stenoinsufficiency, eleven had aortic insufficiency, and three had aortic stenosis. 2DE measurements of aortic annulus diameter, as determined from the parasternal long-axis view, demonstrated a high correlation with actual prosthetic valve size implanted at surgery [r=0.85, p<0.05]. 2DE exactly predicted actual prosthetic valve size in 8 of 29 patients [27.6%], was within 1mm of prosthetic valve size in 11 of 29 patients [37.9%], was within 2mm of prosthetic valve size in 8 of 29 patients, and was within 3mm of prosthetic valve size in 2 patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.303-315
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• 1978

During the full 10-year period from June 1968 through June 1978, 112 consecutive patients underwent isolated or double valve replacement. A total of 130 valves were used in aortic, mitral or tricuspid positions: 63 prosthetic valves in 56 and 67 glutaraldehyde-preserved porcine aortic valves in 56 patients. There were 31 early and 9 late deaths with a cumulative mortality rate of 35.7 percent. Eighty-five patients survived longer than 10 days postoperatively were studied for the occurrence of thromboembolism and complications related to anticoagulant therapy. At the end of follow-up period, 68 patients were on Coumadin; 74 were on Persantin with or without Coumadin; 11 were off any antithrombotic drugs with 6 of them being off electively after 6 months of tissue valve replacement. Thromboembolism occurred in 7 [8.2%] of 85 patients or 10.9%/patient-year. Embolic rates were as follows: one of 18 patients anticoagulated [5.6%] or 6.1%/patient-year and 4 of 16 patients not anticoagulated [25.0%] or 17.8%/patient-year for the prosthetic valve replacement; and one of 40 patients anticoagulated [2.5%] or 7.9%/patient-year and one of 11 patients not anticoagulated [9.1%] or 7.9%/patient-year for tissue valve replacement. Three complications of major bleeding were experienced by 3 patients during the follow-up period, being related to Coumadin therapy. The importance of proper anticoagulation were stressed for the successful management of patients after cardiac valve replacement, both prosthetic and tissue valves.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 1995

From January 1985 to December 1992, of 1257 patients who underwent a heart valve replacement 210 [16.8% underwent reoperation on prosthetic heart valves, and 6 of them had a second valve reoperation. The indications for reoperation were structural deterioration [176 cases, 81.5% , prosthetic valve endocarditis [25 cases, 11.6% , paravalvular leak [12 cases, 5.6% , valve thrombosis [2 cases, 0.9% and ascending aortic aneurysm [1 case, 0.4% . Prosthetic valve failure developed most frequently in mitral position [57.9% and prosthetic valve endocarditis and paravalvular leak developed significantly in the aortic valve [40%, 75% [P<0.02 . Mean intervals between the primary valve operation and reoperation were 105.3$\pm$28.4 months in the case of prosthetic valve failure, 61.5$\pm$38.5 months in prosthetic valve endocarditis, 26.8$\pm$31.2 months in paravalvualr leak, and 25.0$\pm$7.0 months in valve thrombosis. In bioprostheses, the intervals were in 102.0$\pm$23.9 months in the aortic valve, and 103.6$\pm$30.8 months in the mitral valve. The overall hospital mortality rate was 7.9% [17/26 : 15% in aortic valve reoperation [6/40 , 6.5% in reoperation on the mitral prostheses [9/135 and 5.7% in multiple valve replacement [2.35 . Low cardiac output syndrome was the most common cause of death [70.6% . Advanced New York Heart Association class [P=0.00298 , explant period [P=0.0031 , aortic cross-clamp time [P=0.0070 , prosthetic valve endocarditis [P=0.0101 , paravalvularr leak [P=0.0096 , and second reoperation [P=0.00036 were the independent risk factors, but age, sex, valve position and multiple valve replacement did not have any influence on operative mortality. Mean follow up period was 38.6$\pm$24.5 months and total patient follow up period was 633.3 patient year. Actuarial survival at 8 year was 97.3$\pm$3.0% and 5 year event-free survival was 80.0$\pm$13.7%. The surgical risk of reoperation on heart valve prostheses in the advanced NYHA class patients is higher, so reoperation before severe hemodynamic impairment occurs is recommended.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.158-166
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• 1992

From 1985 to 1990, a total of 160 new valves were implanted for 125 adult patients to whom prosthetic valve replacement had been performed [One patient had consecutive 2 reoperations]. Following data are the results from the follow-up study from January 1985 to February 1991. Mean age of the patients was 37.9$\pm$12.1 years. Mean follow-up period was 25.8$\pm$18.8 months. In bioprosthesis, mean interval between the previous operation and reoperation was 85.6$\pm$36.4 months in aortic valve, and 87.3$\pm$30.0 months in mitral valve. The causes of reoperation were prosthetic valve failure[103 patients, 81.7%], prosthetic valve endocarditis[17 patients, 13.5%], periprosthetic leakage[5 patients, 4.0%], and aneurysm of ascending aorta[1 patient, 0.8%]. Fourteen patients[11.1%] died in hospital; 5 in 22 replacement of aortic valve[22.7%], 6 in 73 rereplacement of mitral valve[8.2%], and 3 in 31 replacement of multiple valves [9.7%] Except for 3 intraoperative deaths, postoperative, major and minor complications occurred in 39 patients[31.0%]. And the actuarial 5-year survival rate of operative survivors was 95.5$\pm$8.6%.