Volume 6 - Número 2

Thirty-nine patientes with mitral insufficiency or mitral stenosis and incompetence submitted to valvular repair were evaluated in the late postoperative period. Mean age of the patients was 30.5 years, with standard deviation of 17.2 years. Twenty-four patients were females (61.5%) and 15 (38.5%) males. Twenty-one Carpentier ring annuloplasties, 12 repair with a posterior sling, five Merendino type annuloplasties and one Kay type annuloplasty were performed. Twenty-three (58.97%) patients presented symptons related to rheumatic fever disease, 12 (30.76%) had no definite etiology and four (10.25%) presented mucoid degeneration occurred in this series. Evolution time was 1497 months/standard (meam 38.39 months and Standard deviation of 16.08 months). In the late postoperative period 34 (87.74%) patients were in NYHA functional class I. Two late deaths (5.12%) occurred, and two (5.12%) patients were reoperated on. Linearilized rates of the reoperation and thromboembolism events were 1.6% and 0.8% per patient/year, respectively. Estimated survival rate was 94.87%. Echocardiographic evaluation of the pre and postoperative values demonstrated significant decrease of the left ventricular diastolic diameter (p = 0.0001), of the left ventricular systolic diameter (p = 0.0001) of the left venticular systolic diameter (p = 0.0001) and of the left atrial diameter (p = 0.0001). The postoperative Doppler echocardiograpfic studies demonstrated absence of valvular area changes at effort. It was possible to conclude that patients submitted to mitral valve repair benefited from higher survival rates and satisfactory clinical evolution. Keywords: heart valves, mitral, surgery

Twenty-nine cyanotic patients with tetralogy of Fallot ranging in age from 16 to 43 years (mean, 21 yrs) have undergone total correction. Only two (6.8%) patients had previous Blalock-Taussig shunt. The established intracardiac technique for total repair was used throughout. In four (13.75) patients, reconstruction of the pulmonary outflow tract was required. The hospital mortality was 13.7% (4 of 29 patients). All deaths occurred in the beginning of the experience (1967-1977), when disposable oxygenators and myocardial protection were not used. The follow-up for the surviving patients was 1560 patient-months (mean, 62 months). There was one late death, not cardiac related. All but two survivors had good clinical results. These two patients were successfully reoperated for correction of residual defects at six months and 11 years after the initial procedure, respectively. We believe that advanced age is not a contraindication for total repair of tetralogy of Fallot since patients with this anomaly surviving to adulthood usually show favourable morphology. Keywords: tetralogy of Fallot, surgery

Dynamic cardiomyplasty has been proposed as an alternative surgical treatment for severe cardiomyopathies. From May 1988 to October 1990, dynamic cardiomyoplasty was performed in 16 patients with dilated or chagasic cardiomyopathy at the Heart Institute. Ten patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III and six in Class IV. There were no operative deaths. During a men follow-up of 16.9 ± 2.5 months, the actuarial survival was 74% at 1 year and 64.8% at 2 years of follow-up. This survival was influenced by the worse evolution of patients with left ventricular internal diameter more than 80 mm. These results were, however, better than the survival of 39.5 and 29.6%, presented at the same periods, respectively, by 20 patients maintained under medical therapy. Five of the 11 surviving patients in cardiomyoplasty group are in NYHA Class I and six in Class II. At 6 months of follow-up, radioisotopic left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction increased from 20.1 ± 3.8 to 26 ± 7.8% (p < 0.01). Doppler-echocardiography demonstrated that LV segmental wall shortening improved from 12 ± 3.1 to 17.8 ± 2.3% (p < 0.01), while LV stroke volume increased from 23.6 ± 5.2 to 32.3 ± 7.9 ml (p < 0.01). Similar increases in cardiac index, associated with decreases in pulmonary artery and wedge pressures, were also demonstrated by cardiac catheterization. Cardiopulmonary exercise test showed the improvement of maximal oxygen consumption from 14,9 ± 3.9 to 18.2 ± 3.4 ml/kg/min (p < 0.05). One year and 18 months after the cardiomyoplasty, these data remained essentially unchanged. In conclusion, dynamic cardiomyoplasty improves left ventricular function, reverses congestive heart failure and may improve survival of patiens with dilated cardiomyopathies. Factors as the existence of severe left ventricular dilation may, however, limited the late results of this procedure. Keywords: cardiomyoplasty; cardiomyopathies, surgery

A prospective and randomized study was performed to compare blood cardioplegia with warm reperfusion to intermittent aortic cross-clamping in the myocardial revascularization. Sixty patients were operated upon, 30 with blood cardioplegia (Group I) and 30 with aortic cross-clamping (Group II). There were no differences between the two groups in regard to preoperative data. Fifteen patients were in NYHA class III or IV (angina) in the group I and 20 patients in the group II. Six patients had left ventricular aneurysms, three in each group. An average number of 2.93 grafts per patient were performed in the group I and 3.13 in the group II. The cardiopulmonary bypass time was 85 ± 23 min in the group II and 100 ± 28 min in the group I (p < 0.05). The aortic cross-clamping time was 44.3 ± 14.9 min in the group II and 62.8 ± 24.5 min in the group I (p < 0.01). The average ischemic time per anastomosis in the group II was 8.6 ± 2.2 min. The postoperative variations of the cardiac index, left ventricular stroke work index and right ventricular stroke work index were similar in the two groups. The higher serum level of CKMB was 30.7 ± 12.8 UI in the group II and 25 ± 10 in the group I. The hospital mortality was 3.3%, one patient in each group. From these findings, we conclude that both techniques offer good myocardial protection and are used in the myocardial revascularization with similar results. Keywords: myocardial protection, cardioplegia; myocardial revascularization, surgery; reperfusion, warm; aorta, clamping

From April to December 1990, four patients were submitted to left ventricular assistance with centrifugal pump, because they presented cardiogenic shock after cardiac surgery, not responsive to intraortic balloon pump and drugs. The first patient had an aneurysm of anterior wall of the left ventricle with ejection fraction of 16% in the pre-operative period. The cardiac surgery was technically successful, but the patient could not be weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass with maximal pharmacological therapy and intra-aortic balloon pump. Then we used Biomedicus centrifugal pump for left ventricular assistance. The patient was assisted for 48 hours. Nowadays, she is in NYHA class II at eleventh post-operative month. The second case was a patient submitted to coronary bypass and mitral valve replacement. At second post-operative day the graft to LAD was occluded, resulting in cardiac arrest. The patient was put again in cardiopulmonary bypass, and could not be weaned. The left ventricle had a myocardial infarction, and the assisted circulation was used as a bridge to cardiac transplantation. After five days, without heart donor, he died due to a large embolus at lung. The third case was a patient with bad left ventricular function, submitted to coronary bypass. The patient could not be weaned of cardiopulmonary bypass. He was put in left assisted circulation for 32 hours. This patient had bleeding diathesis. He died in the fourth post-operative day due to respiratory failure. The fourth, case was a patient submitted to left ventricular aneurysm correction and coronary bypass. The patient could not be weaned of cardiopulmonary bypass and was put in left assisted circulation. He was assisted for 60 hours. The patient died in the 35th post-operative day due to respiratory failure. We believe that the more often utilization of various types of assisted circulation will lead to reduce global mortality of cardiac surgery. The intra-esophagic echocardiography in our four patients was useful in the evaluation of ventricular function. Keywords: assisted circulation, mechanic; extracorporeal circulation, centrifugal pump

The ventricle aneurysms are severe complications of the miocardium infarctions decreasing the ventricle function and increasing the morbi-mortality rate. The surgical correction proposed by Cooley, in 1958, has changed the evolution of this complication. In 1985, Jatene gave a worldwide contribution to the Geometrical Reconstruction of the left ventricle, showing superior functional results and low mortality rate. We present a technique modification of the aneurysmectomy with geometrical reconstruction utilizing semi-rigid prosthesis double-coated with bovine pericardium with an implantation stent made of Dacron out of which the flap is projected, also made of bovine pericardium. They are available with their 19 up to 27 mm wide diameter with the corresponding sizer and they have a radiopaque stent for radiological identification. Once the aneurysm has been opened, the transition are between contractile tissue and the fibrous zone is delimited. Polyester 2-0 stitches are passed separately in inverted U shape supported by "pledgets" of Teflon all around the venticle circle and with the diameter sizer we evaluate the aneurysm original transaction which enlarged with the time, setting the right size of the prosthesis. The Dacron stent is then shown reducing the aneurysm transition to the size of the ring so that it gives the ventricle its original shape with no loss of noble tissue, remodellign its cavity. Then with a continuous suture from the bovine pericardium flap, projected from the stent and the fibrous tissue, the hemostasia is completed. From 16 patients submitted to the technique, 11 patients studied by the 100-shortening-chordae computerized system. The average ejection fraction (Dodge/Kennedy N = 0.55 - 0.81) of the pre-operative was 0.37 and 0.53 for the post-operative showing a 43% improvement in the miocardium function. Keywords: left ventricle, surgery, geometrical reconstruction; heart valves prosthesis, bovine pericardium

The early results of 79 patients who underwent left ventricular aneurysmectomy with the geometric and circular reconstruction in a seven years experience are analyzed. The most common indication for operation was congestive heart failure (78.4%), isolated (25.3%) or with coronary artery disease (53.1%). Sixty (76%) patients were in NYHA class III and 10 (12.6%) in NYHA class IV at the time of surgery. Fifty eight (73.4%) underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Hospital mortality was 5.1% and patients older than 60 (12%), in NYHA class IV (20%), with poor left ventricular function (FE < 0.30 - 20% and LVEDP > 25 - 14%) and extensive coronary artery disease (10%) were under increased risk. Low cardiac output and use of IABP were also associate with this risk factors. Other factors of increased risk pointed in the literature are discussed. There were no deaths for isolated left ventricular aneurysmectomy. The early results of this study and the early and late results from others using the same technique are better than that obtained by others with different types of correction and they suggest that this is the procedure of choice to treat left ventricular aneurysm. Keywords: aneurysms of left ventricle, surgery, geometric reconstruction

At the Heart Institute, we performed a study to evaluate if the internal thoracic artery modified the nosocomial mortality of elderly coronary patients (age 70 years), submitted to elective isolated revascularization of the myocardium. Clinical, hemodynamic, radiologic, operative and postoperative parameters were included in the protocol. In a prospective study one hundred consecutive patients, with complete observations were analysed. The statistical analysis was performed using Pearson's X 2 test. The results of this study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups, the nosocomial mortality being higher in that in which autogenous saphenous vein grafts were used. The role of the surgeon as a screener regarding obtention of results is also discussed. Keywords: myocardial revascularisation, surgery

An adult patient presenting a congenital vascular anomaly of the aortic arch and ring formation, surrounding trachea and esophagus, by compression of the latest was complaining of progressive dysphagia. A surgical approach was performed by right lateral thoracotomy with ressection of the Kommerell diverticulum, section of the arterious ligament and single ligation of the subclavian artery which was followed by total regression of the symptoms. No subclavian steal syndrome or ischemia was observed on the left upper limb. The authors discuss the manner of approach and surgical treatment of this rare anomaly. Keywords: aortic arch anomaly, surgery; esophagus compression, surgery