Chylopericardium after mitral valve repair for rheumatic valve disease treated with surgery.

Chylopericardium is a rare disorder that may be primary (idiopathic) or secondary to injury of the thoracic duct or thymus gland. Pediatric cardiac operations are more commonly related to this complication because thymus gland is very active in this population and atrophies in the adult patients. We present a case of chylopericardium after mitral valve repair for rheumatic disease, due to thymus gland tributaries injury.

Giant Aneurysm of Ascending Aorta and Aortic Arch: A Report of a Rare Case.

A thoracic aortic aneurysm is considered giant when its diameter exceeds 10 cm. We report a rare case of a giant aneurysm involving the ascending aorta and aortic arch in a 40-year-old man, initially diagnosed as an acute aortic dissection. The patient underwent emergency surgery, during which the ascending aorta and aortic arch were replaced under deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest with selective antegrade cerebral perfusion. Strong teamwork resulted in a favorable postoperative course for the patient.

Aortic Annulus Enlargement: Early and Long-Terms Results.

AIM: Patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM) is a common occurrence in aortic valve surgery. Even the discussions about the impact of this phenomenon on the results of aortic valve surgery, the management of this problem remain one of the main topics in this kind of surgery. One of the ways of a solution is aortic annulus enlargement. The main topic of this study is to evaluate the early and longterm results of this technique in our country. METHODS: During the period January 2010 -January 2015, 641 patients performed aortic valve surgery. In ten patients we performed aortic annulus enlargement according to Manouguian technique to avoid severe patient-prothesis mismatch. Operative mortality and perioperative complications (low cardiac output, pulmonary complications, etc..) were considered the indicators of the early results. Survival, clinical presentation according to NYHA, quality of life were the indicators to evaluate long-term results. Preoperative and postoperative echocardiographic data were also used to evaluate our results. We collected the data from hospital registrations and periodical clinical visit and echographic examination after hospital discharge. RESULTS: In our group, 6 of 10 patients were diagnosed with stenotic aortic valve, two patients had aortic valve regurgitation and two mixed valve pathology. Four patients had concomitant cardiac surgery procedure, mitral or CABG. In all cases, aortic valve pathology was the primary diagnose. In the preoperative echocardiographic examination mean transvalvular gradient was 54.3 ± 6.42. We had no death during early or late postoperative period. Only one patient had pulmonary complications and long time of respiratory assistance because of his pulmonary pathology. The same patient had low cardiac output and wound infection. Early after surgery mean transprostethic gradient was 16.2 ± 3.44 and late postoperative was 15.9 ± 4.3. No patient had the severe patient-prothesis mismatch. Mean follow-up was 49 ± 20.26 months. During follow-up, we had no death, and all patients had very good quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Aortic valve annulus enlargement can be used with very good early and late results with the final goal to increase the potential benefit of the patient from surgery of aortic valve.

Aortic Annular Enlargement during Aortic Valve Replacement.

In the surgery of aortic valve replacement is always attempted, as much as possible, to implant the larger prosthesis with the mains goals to enhance the potential benefits, to minimise transvalvular gradient, decrease left ventricular size and avoid the phenomenon of patient-prosthesis mismatch. Implantation of an ideal prosthesis often it is not possible, due to a small aortic annulus. A variety of aortic annulus enlargement techniques is reported to avoid patient-prosthesis mismatch. We present the case that has submitted four three times open heart surgery. We used Manouguian technique to enlarge aortic anulus with excellent results during the fourth time of surgery.

Incidence and Impact of Patient-Prosthesis Mismatch in Isolated Aortic Valve Surgery.

AIM: The mains topics of this work are the incidence of patient-prosthesis mismatch and the influence in the early results of isolated aortic valve surgery. METHODS: In 193 patients isolated aortic valve surgery was performed. The study population was divided in three subgroups: 20 patients with severe, 131 patients with moderate and 42 patients without patient-prosthesis mismatch. The indexed effective orifice area was used to define the subgroups. Operative mortality and perioperative complications were considered the indicators of the early results of aortic valve surgery. RESULTS: The incidence of severe and moderate patient-prosthesis mismatch was respectively 10.3% and 67.8%. Hospital mortality and perioperative complications were: mortality 5% vs. 3.1% vs. 2.4% (p = 0.855), low cardiac output 5% vs. 6.9% vs. 4.8% (p = 0.861); pulmonary complications 5% vs. 3.1 vs. 0.0% (p = 0.430); exploration for bleeding 5% vs. 0.8% vs. 2.4% (p = 0.319); atrial fibrillation 30% vs. 19.8% vs. 11.9% (p = 0.225); wound infection 5% vs. 0.8% vs. 0.00% (p = 0.165), respectively for the group with severe, moderate and without patient-prosthesis mismatch. CONCLUSIONS: Patient-prosthesis mismatch is a common occurrence in aortic valve surgery. This phenomenon does not affect the early results of aortic valve surgery.