ABSTRACT
Post-myocardial infarction ventricular septal perforation (VSP) is one of the lethal complications of transmural myocardial infarction. Although the treatment of VSP mostly requires surgical procedures using heterologous pericardium, thromboembolism rarely occurs in patients who undergo VSP repair. Herein we report the case of a patient who died of sudden massive cerebral infarction two weeks after the surgery. The autopsy findings revealed concaved mural LV thrombus in the dissected heart. It is suspected that the patient died of extensive cerebral infarction due to thromboembolic occlusion of the carotid or central cerebral artery. In the postoperative period after VSP repair, several risk factors for thrombus formation may occur, such as postoperative hypercoagulability due to systemic inflammation by the high operative invasiveness, the presence of foreign material in the impaired left ventricle, or pericardial patch suturing methods. Our clinical experience indicates that meticulous postoperative management may be needed, keeping LV thrombus formation in mind after VSP repair.
ABSTRACT
Caseous calcification of mitral annulus is a rare disease characterized by tumors of the mitral cusps. Operative case reports, however, are rare because this lesion seldom negatively affects hemodynamics. We encountered a 67-year-old female case of mitral regurgitation with caseous calcification of mitral posterior annulus due to ischemic heart disease and performed mitral valve replacement and CABG. The excision of the mitral thickened lesion resulted in a defect of the mitral annulus, which needed to be repaired with an autologous pericardial patch. We mainly report the intraoperative findings of this case.
ABSTRACT
Total replacement of the aortic root in patients with anomalous origin of the coronary arteries has not been reported. We report a 63-year-old male with anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva in whom aortic root replacement was performed to correct a 60mm aortic root aneurysm and a grade 4/4 aortic regurgitation. In this operation with a composite graft (a 24mm Gelseal graft with a 23mm St. Jude Medical prosthesis), modified reconstruction of the coronary arteries was necessary not only because both coronary ostia were in close proximity but also because the proximal portion of the right coronary artery was intramural. We used a modification of Piehler's technique in which both coronary ostia were simultaneously anastomosed to a beveled 10mm Gelseal graft. In this anastomosis, a small piece of the autologous pericardium was interposed between the graft and the aortic wall surrounding the ostium of the right coronary artery to protect the intramural artery from injury. This modification in reconstructing the coronary arteries was technically easy and effective in the special setting of the anomalous origin of the coronary arteries.