• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.673-682
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• 1987

The principal feature of bioprosthetic valve which remains to be completely defined is long-term durability, especially, with regard to the impact of patient age. This report provides extended data regarding valve durability derived from a data base of 515 patients who received lonescu-Shiley bioprosthetic valve between 1978 and 1985; cumulative duration of follow-up was 1562.3 patient-years, with a maximum follow-up duration of 8.7 years. The results of this survey showed as follows: 1] The actuarial freedom from valve failure at 6 years were 43*7% for 0-19 year-old group, 70*1% for 20-39 year-old group and 75*1% for over 40 year-old group separately. 2] Of the causes of valve failure, only the primary tissue failure was markedly influenced by patient`s age [p<0.001], but the prosthetic valve endocarditis was not [p>0.1]. 3] The linealized incidences of primary tissue failure were 7.31% per patient-year in 0-19 year-old group and 0.12% in 20-39 year-old group. 4] The primary tissue failure rate in 0-19 year-old group was 6.36% during first 4 years, but then increased upto 10.95% at postoperative 5 year. Thus we find that in bioprosthetic valve the primary tissue failure is apt to occur when patient is young [especially less than 20 years old] and the postreplacement time passes [especially over 5 years]. The rate of bioprosthesis failure among children and adolescents is clearly higher than that observed in adult patients; however, conclusive quantification of time-related risk for young patient is not yet possible on the basis of existing data. Therefore, the advisability of bioprosthesis implantation in children remains to be determined.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.977-982
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• 1996

Cardiac valve implantation was performed in 107 patients from September, 1988 to May, 1995. There were 3) men and 74 women, whose ages ranged from 19 to 75 years(mean 42.6$\pm$11.7). Mitral valve was implanted in 61 patients, double(mitral & aortic) valve were Implanted in 28 patients and aortic valve was implanted in 18 patients. Follow up was 100% complete, with 345.6 patient-years and a mean fo low up of 41 months(from 1.5 to 84 months). The total mortality was 14.9%(16 patients). The early mortality was 5.6%(6 patients) and the late mortality was 9.3%(10 patients). The overall actuarial survival was 92.6 $\pm$ 2 6% at 2 years, 88.6$\pm$3.8% at 6 years. The probability of freedom from valve failure, thromboembolism and bacterial endocarditis were 388.6 $\pm$ 3.8, 88.3 $\pm$3.9, 89.5 $\pm$3.7 at 6 years, respectively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2013

Background: The continuous suture (CS) technique has several advantages as a method for simple, fast, and secure aortic valve replacement (AVR). We used a simple CS technique without the use of a pledget for AVR and evaluated the surgical outcomes. Materials and Methods: Between October 2007 and 2012, 123 patients with aortic valve disease underwent AVR alone (n=28) or with other concomitant cardiac procedures (n=95), such as mitral, tricuspid, or aortic surgery. The patients were divided into two groups: the interrupted suture (IS) group (n=47), in which the conventional IS technique was used, and the CS group (n=76), in which the simple CS technique was used. Results: There were two hospital deaths (1.6%), which were not related to the suture technique. There were no significant differences in cardiopulmonary bypass time or aortic cross-clamp time between the two groups for AVR alone or AVR with concomitant cardiac procedures. In the IS group, two patients had prosthetic endocarditis and one patient experienced significant perivalvular leak. These patients underwent reoperations. In the CS group, there were no complications related to the surgery. Postoperatively, the two groups had similar aortic valve gradients. Conclusion: The simple CS method is useful and secure for AVR in patients with aortic valve disease, and it may minimize surgical complications, as neither pledgets nor braided sutures are used.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.600-606
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• 2007

Background: Infective endocarditis shows high surgical mortality and morbidity rates, especially for aortic endocarditis. This study attempts to investigate the clinical characteristics and operative results of isolated aortic endocarditis. Material and Method: From July 1990 to May 2005, 25 patients with isolated aortic endocarditis (Group I, male female=18 : 7, mean age $43.2{\pm}18.6$ years) and 23 patients with isolated mitral endocarditis (Group II, male female=10 : 13, mean age $43.2{\pm}17.1$ years) underwent surgical treatment in our hospital. All the patients had native endocarditis and 7 patients showed a bicuspid aortic valve in Group I. Two patients had prosthetic valve endocarditis and one patients developed mitral endocarditis after a mitral valvuloplasty in Group II. Positive blood cultures were obtained from 11 (44.0%) patients in Group I, and 10 (43.3%) patients in Group II, The pre-operative left ventricular ejection fraction for each group was $60.8{\pm}8.7%$ and $62.1{\pm}8.1%$ (p=0.945), respectively. There was moderate to severe aortic regurgitation in 18 patients and vegetations were detected in 17 patients in Group I. There was moderate to severe mitral regurgitation in 19 patients and vegetations were found in 18 patients in Group II. One patient had a ventricular septal defect and another patient underwent a Maze operation with microwaves due to atrial fibrillation. We performed echocardiography before discharge and each year during follow-up. The mean follow-up period was $37.2{\pm}23.5$ (range $9{\sim}123$) months. Result: Postoperative complications included three cases of low cardiac output in Group I and one case each of re-surgery because of bleeding and low cardiac output in Group II. One patient died from an intra-cranial hemorrhage on the first day after surgery in Group I, but there were no early deaths in Group II. The 1, 3-, and 5-year valve related event free rates were 92.0%, 88.0%, and 88.0% for Group I patients, and 91.3%, 76.0%, and 76.0% for Group II patients, respectively. The 1, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 96.0%, 96.0%, and 96.0% for Group I patients, and foo%, 84.9%, and 84.9% for Group II patients, respectively. Conclusion: Acceptable surgical results and mid-term clinical results for aortic endocarditis were seen.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.5 s.274
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• pp.341-350
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• 2007

Background: We present here the early and midterm surgical results for infective endocarditis and we especially focus on the effect of aggressive reconstruction or root implantation after wide debridement. Material and Method: Between January 1995 and Jun 2006, we enrolled 79 adult infective endocarditis patients who underwent surgical treatment. There were 63 and 16 native and prosthetic valve endocarditis cases, respectively. They included 27 cases of culture negative endocarditis. With performing valve replacement or repair, 28 of the patient underwent a more aggressive surgical option, for example, aortic root replacement or reconstruction, or heart base reconstruction etc. Result: There were statistical relationships between the in-hospital mortality and staphylococcal infection, urgent-based operation and operation during the active phase of endocarditis. Wide debridement and aggressive reconstruction were not related to either the post operative mortality or the early morbidity. Culture negative endocarditis was not related to the postoperative mortality and morbidity. Conclusion: Physicians must pay attention to patients' medical treatment during the preoperative period of the infective endocarditis. If surgery is considered for treating infective endocarditis, it should be performed before the downhill course of the disease so that the surgical outcome is improved. Wide debridement and more aggressive reconstruction are also warranted.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.792-798
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• 2002

Although there is a controversy on the optimal timing for active infective endocarditis(IE), recently good results of early surgical intervention have been published. Herein, we analyzed the results of surgery for active IE according to the duration of preoperative antibiotic treatment. Material and Method : Retrospectively, we analyzed 51 patients who underwent operation for active IE at the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery of Samsung medical center from Mar. 1995 to Oct. 2001. Male to female ratio was 39:12, mean age of the patients was 44.5$\pm$17.8 years(range : 13~74). Infected valves were mitral valve in 17(33.3%), aortic valve in 15(29.4%), mitral and aortic valve in 12(23.5), and tricuspid valve in 5(9.8%) cases. Among them, prosthetic valve endocarditis was present in 10(19.6%) cases. Infecting organism was Staphylococcus in 19(37.3%), Streptococcus in 17(33.3%), Enterococcus in 3(5.9%), fungus in 3(5.9%), and other bacteria in 5(9.8%) cases. Organism was not isolated in 6(11.8%) cases, and two organisms were isolated in 4(7.8%) cases. Dividing these patients into two groups according to the duration of preoperative antibiotic treatment(A: less than 7 days, B: more than 8 days), we compared the surgical results between the two groups. Result : There were 16 cases in group A and 35 in group B. Annular reconstruction was performed in 10(62.5%) cases in group A and 10(28.6%) cases in group B, which has statistically significance(p＜0.05). There was one early death in group B. Forty nine patients(96.1%) except two were followed up with mean follow-up duration of 28.7 $\pm$ 23.6 months. Endocarditis was recurred in one in group A, and two in group B. Three late deaths occurred in group B. Recurrence rate and survival were not statistically different between the two groups. Conclusion : Early surgery for active IE showed good results as the result of that which was performed after prolonged antibiotic treatment; therefore, we believe that early surgery for active If could effectively eradicate the infection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.272-280
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• 1994

Total 400 St.Jude Medical Bileaflet Valves were implanted in 336 pts from January 1983 to June 1993; 64 were aortic, 205 were mitral, 64 were double valve and 3 were tricuspid position. The follow up period extended from 6 months to 10 years[mean 24.3 months]. Male to female ratio was 1:1.7. There were total 27 deaths[cardiac related 20, cardiac non-related 7]. Overall mortality was 2.9%/pt-yr. There were 10 early deaths[3.0%] and 10 late cardiac related deaths [3.0%]. Prosthetic valve related complications occurred in 19 patients[5.7%] and among them, seven died; four died of thromboembolic events, two died of anticoagulants therapy related hemorrhagic complications and one died of bacterial endocarditis. NYHA class improved significantly especially in aortic valve replacement and double valve replacement. In AVR cases, the mean NYHA was 2.8 preoperatively and 1.3 postoperatively. And in DVR cases, 3.3 preoperatively and 2.2 postoperatively. The decision to employ a particular prosthesis was made according to the anticipated or known complications of the valve. The St.Jude Medical Valve retains all the hazards of other mechanical valves, most notably, thromboembolism. But the hemodynamic performance of St.Jude Medical Valve compared most favorably with other substitute valves in many reports. 0ur experience didn`t show any differences compared other authors in terms of valve related complication. So we concluded St. Jude Medical Valve can be primarily considered in the selection of artificial valve except in the patients when the usage of anticoagulant therapy is contraindicated.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.391-397
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• 2000

Background: Cardiac involvement of Behcets disease is very rate, however, the prognosis of Behcet disease depends on cardiovascular complications. In this article, we described surgical treatment of aortic insufficiency with Behcets disease. Material and Method: From March 1986 to February 1998, we operated on 10 patients of aortic insufficiency with Behcets disease. Male to female ratio was 8 to 2, and age ranged from 21 to 40 years(mean 32.8 years). There were 8 patients with evidence of Behcets disease and another 2 patients had some suspicious findings of Behcets disease(i.e., prosthetic value dehiscence, hypertrophied aortic wall). Adequate preoperative medical treatment for Behcets disease was done in 3 patients. Result: We performed 24 open heart surgeries in 10 patients. Redo value replacements using prosthetic valves were done in 4 patients. Among them, 2 patients were operated on for a second redo valve replacement and one of them operated on for a 4th and 5th operation because of recurrent paravalvular leakage. These 4 patients expired. 1 patient who had undergons tissue value replacement is alive. 1 patient who underwent Cabrol operation expired dut to rupture of graft anastomosis site. We used homografts in 3 patients. In 2 of them, we performed aortic root replacement and subcoronary valve replacement in another patient. The patient who underwent subcoronary valve insertion had remnant aortic insufficiency, so we are closely observing him. We also performed Ross operation in a 24 year old female who suffered severs aortic insufficiency and endocarditis after aortic valvuloplasty. 5 patients are alive and mean follow up duration is 49.0 months. Among them, we used homografts or sutografts in 4 patients. We could observe excellent clinical results in the patients who underwent aortic root replacement using homograft and they were treated medically for Behcets disease. Conclusion: We concluded that adequate preporative diagnosis, clinical suspicion, and periopertive medical treatment for Behcets disease are very important for the result of surgical management of aortic insufficiency with Behcets disease. The use of homograft or autograft was helpful for the healing of anastomosis site and we should carefully observe the long term follow up results.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.651-658
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• 2003

Since the first implanted in September 1997, the use of On-X prosthetic heart valve has been increasing around in the world. This study was designed to assess the feasibility, safety, and the postoperative hemodynamics with this new valve in clinical setting. Material and Method: The current study was carried out on 52 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement with this prosthesis between April 1999 to August 2002 at Chonnam National University Hospital to evaluate the surgical results. 52％ of the patients were male and the average age at implant was 50$\pm$13 years. The study followed the guidelines of the AATS/STS. Preoperatively, 32(61.5％) patients were in NYHA functional class III or IV and 2 patients had previous aortic valve surgery. Concomitant cardiac surgery was performed in 71.1％. The implanted valve sizes were 19 mm in 13 patients, 21 mm in 26, 23 mm in 10 and 25 mm in 3, respectively. Mean follow-up was 16.6$\pm$10.5 months (1∼39 months). Echocardiographic assessment was performed pre- and immediate postoperatively, as well as 3, 6, 12 months after surgery, evaluating pressure loss and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. Result: Mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 191$\pm$94.7 minutes with an aortic cross-clamp time of 142$\pm$51.7 minutes. There was no early and late mortality, Freedom from adverse events at 1 year in the study were as follows: thromboembolism, 95.6$\pm$6％; bleeding events, 90.2$\pm$4％; paravalvular leakage 92.3$\pm$4％; and overall valve-related morbidity at 1 year was 76.6$\pm$3％. There were no cases of valve thrombosis, prosthetic valve endocarditis and structural or non-structural failure. Left ventricular function at 12 months after surgery (EF=62.7$\pm$9.8％) revealed a statistically significant improvement compared to preoperative investigation (EF=55.8$\pm$15.9％, p=0.006). Left ventricular mass index was 247.3$\pm$122.3 g/$m^2$ on preoperative echocardiographic study, but regressed to 155.5$\pm$58.2 g/$m^2$ at postoperative 1 year (p=0.002). Over the follow-up period a further decrease of peak transvalvular gradients was observed in all patients: 62.5$\pm$38.0 mmHg on preoperative assessment, 18.2$\pm$6.8 mmHg at immediate postoperative period (p < 0.0001), 7.6$\pm$5.09 mmHg (p<0.0001) at 6 month, 18.0$\pm$10.8 mmHg (p<0.0001) at 1 year. Conclusion: The On-X prosthetic heart valve performs satisfactorily in the first 1 year period. Clinical outcome by examining NYHA functional classification revealed especially good results. Effective regression of left ventricular hypertrophy and statistically significant decrease of transvalvular gradient were observed over the first year, but longer-term follow-up of this patient group is needed to establish the expected rates for late valve-related events as well as the long-term clinical efficacy of this valve.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.321-328
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• 2003

Background: The St. Jude Medical prosthesis is one of the popularly used artificial prosthesis, therefore the National Medical Center reports the long-term clinical results of patients who underwent prosthetic valve replacement with St. Jude medical valve for 18 years. Material and Method: Between January, 1984 and June, 2002, a series of 163 consecutive patients who had Implanted St. Jude prosthesis at the National Medical Center were reviewed. Mean age was 42.9$\pm$15.1 years and male to female ratio was 69:94. The operative procedure comprised of 87 MVR, 30 AVR, 45 DVR, and 1 TVR. The reoperative procedure comprised of 21 MVR, 2 AVR, and 14 DVR. Follow-up rate was 96.9%, and cumulative follow-up was 823.8 patient-years. Result: Early mortality rate was 7.9% (13 patients), late mortality rate was 8.7% (13 patients) and late mortality due to valve related complication was 47% (7 patients). Actual survival rate at 10 and 18 years were 91.7$\pm$2.1% and 91.0$\pm$1.9%. Linearized Incidence was as follows: thromboembolism, 1.09%/ patient-year; anticoagulant related hemorrhage, 0.36%/patient-year; valve thrombosis, 0.24%/patient-year; paravalvular leakage, 0.12%/patient-year; and prosthetic bacterial endocarditis, 0.12%/patient-year linearized incidence of over all valve related complication was 1.94%/patient-year. Freedom from valve related complication at 10 and 18 years were 89.1$\pm$3.3% and 88.4$\pm$3.9%. Freedom from valve related death at 10 and 18 years were 95.1$\pm$1.2% and 95.1$\pm$1.0%. Valve related complication was related the age of patient, especially anticoagulant related hemorrhage was more common in patients over 60 years of age. Valve related complication, death were higher in DVR than AVR or MVR, and valve related death was higher in reoperation. There was no relationship between valve related complication or death and implant valve of size. Conclusion: The long-term clinical results of patients implanted with St. Jude Mechanical prosthesis was quite satisfactory with a low incidence of valve related complication and mortality.