Preoperative evaluation is crucial for heart valvular surgery. This article discusses some issues that need to be emphasized: the impact of hypertension on the severity of aortic valve lesions, and how to improve the accuracy of clinical assessment; the identification of functional tricuspid regurgitation, in order to choose the appropriate surgical technique; the need for right ventricular function testing, and the use of risk scoring models, to better grasp surgical timing and indications and improve efficacy; and the importance of evaluating atrial mitral and/or tricuspid regurgitation complications in chronic atrial fibrillation, and making rational choices for interventional and surgical treatment.
Abstract： Quality of life （QOL） refers to an individual’s perception and subjective evaluation of their health and well-being, and has become an important index to evaluate the outcomes of clinical treatment in the last past decades. There are a large number of different instruments to evaluate QOL, and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey （SF-36） is currently one of the most widely used instruments. In recent years, SF-36 has been used to evaluate QOL of valvular heart disease patients to investigate the risk factors those influence their postoperative QOL, provide more preoperative evaluation tools for clinical physicians, and improve postoperative outcomes of patients with valvular heart disease. However, it is now just the beginning to use SF-36 to examine QOL of valvular heart disease patients. Because of significant differences in sample size, follow-up period, country and culture, current research has some controversial results. This review focuses on the progress in evaluating QOL in postoperative patients with valvular heart disease using SF-36.
Early enteral nutrition after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) has been shown to have beneficial effects on intestinal integrity, lower mortality and also on the patient’s immunocompetence. Even in critical patients after CPB, enteral nutrition should be reasonable to start early and also be supplemented by parenteral nutrition in order to meet energy requirement. We conclude that enteral nutrition is preferable in the majority of patients with severe hemodynamic failure, but gastrointestinal complication and hypocaloric feeding should be simultaneously noticed. This paper comprehensively described enteral nutrition’s protective mechanism and effects on digestive system, enteral nutrition’s implementing methods after CPB, and problems or prospects needing attention in execution.
Objective To investigate the clinical effects and the brain protection effect of different cardiopulmonary bypass in treating descending aortic aneurysms. Methods From January 2001 to December 2008, 65 patients were diagnosed to have descending aortic aneurysm with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in our hospital. Among them, there were 56 males and 9 females whose age was between 15 and 71 years old with an average of 48.1 years. The disease process ranged from 6 days to 4 months (19.0±6.5 d ). Preoperative diagnosis showed that there were 41 cases of DeBakey type Ⅲinterlayer, 9 cases of Marfan syndrome with postoperative complications of type Ⅲ interlayer, 7 cases of pseudoaneurysm and 8 cases of true aneurysm. We adopted artificial blood vessel repair patch to repair the damaged point of the descending aorta in 2 cases, performed vascular aneurysm resection and artificial vessel replacement on 63 patients, and carried out descending aorta replacement and intercostal artery grafting in 18 cases. Results Among the 65 cases of cardiopulmonary bypass patients, there were 13 cases of left heart bypass, 12 cases of heart bypass, 30 cases of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) with total body retrograde perfusion (TBRP) and 10 cases of modified separate perfusion of upper and low body. Cardiopulmonary bypass time, DHCA time, retrograde perfusion time, upper body circulatory arrest time and low body circulatory arrest time were respectively 51-212 min, 18-75min, 18-73 min, 21-31 min, and 39-67 min. No death occurred during the operation, and there were no brain complications or complications of paralysis among all the patients. Two patients died after operation because of renal failure. Conclusion Good results can be achieved by selecting different method of cardiopulmonary bypass based on the anatomical location and range of the thoracic descending aortic aneurysms. The selection criteria should be favorable to the surgical operation and organ protection.
Abstract： Objective To summarize the methods and results of supra-annular aortic valve replacement（AVR） in patients with severely damaged aortic annulus. Methods Supra-annular AVR was performed in 5 patients between March 2008 and Dec. 2010 in Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University. There were 4 males and 1 female with their mean age of 46.3 years (ranging from 38 to 53 years). Non-specific infectious diseases were diagnosed in 4 patients who had severe paravalvular leakage after their first AVR operations (2 patients with Behcet’s disease and 2 patients with arteritis), and one patient had severe infectious endocarditis. All the patients had severely destroyed aortic annulus and could not undergo routine AVR. The prosthetic valves were fixed to the aortic sinus wall between the annulus and coronary arterial ostia, and the sutures passed through from the outside of aortic wall into the inside and prosthetic valve ring. Coronary artery bypass grafting was performed if the coronary ostium was involved. Results All patients recovered from the operations uneventfully, and were followed up from 6 months to 3 years. All patients were in New York Heart Association（NYHA） functional class Ⅰ or Ⅱ during the follow-up period, and paravalvalar leakage, pseudoaneurysm and aortic root aneurysm were not found by the examination of 3D computed tomographic angiography and echocardiography at 6 months（4 cases）, 1 year（2 cases）, and 3 years（1 case）, respectively . Conclusions Supra-annular AVR is an alternative surgical method for patients with severely damaged aortic annulus. The procedure is simple and effective to prevent paravalvular leakage and pseudoaneurysm formation.
Objective To study effects of mitral valve replacement(MVR) on the old with mitral valve diseases(MVD). Methods The documents of 265 cases undergoing MVR were reviewed, who aged 60 years old or over between June 1991 and June 2003. Demographices, clinical preoperative conditions, indications to surgery, early postoperative course and long-term outcome were collected via hospital documents and outpatient follow-up. Many risk factors were analysed. Results Follow-up rate amounted to 93.7%(236/252). The mortality was 4.9% (13/265) within 30 days. Heart failure and renal failure were the main cause of death. Compared with younger patients(lt;60 years old), long-term survival rate was lower in the old, 5-year 87.52% vs 96.84%, 10-year 81.23% vs 94.87%. There were 15 late deaths(0.17% case/M), most of whom died of heart failure, cancers and lung infections. Risk factors for MVR in the old included New York Heart Association class Ⅳ, diabetes, and lung incompetence. Conclusions The patients with MVD over 60 years old tended to present high postoperatively mortality and morbidity.
Abstract： Objective To evaluate the early and late results of mitral valve replacement with home made C-L pugesturt tilting disc and analyse the factors which impact on the therapeutic effect，so as to elevate the operative effect. Methods A retrospective study was made on the result of clinical data and longterm followup of 259 patients who had undergone the Chinesemade C-L pugesturt tilting disc mechanical valve replacement from October 1991 to November 2006. Results The data showed that there were 12 patients died in the duration of hospital stay.The hospital mortality was 4.63% (12/259).There were no mechanical valverelated complication in the earlier postoperative period.The mortality fell to 2.59% since 1996.Among the 235 patients,12 patients were lost during the followup,the rate of followup was 95.1%(235/247).The time for followup was 9.77±3.09 years. There were 26 late deaths.During the follow-up,death associated with the deterioration of valve structure were not observed. The 5 years, 10 years and l5 years survival rates were 86.80%±2.30%, 78.20%±3.33% and 55.23%±4.34% respectively; the thromboembolic event free rates for 5 years, 10 years and l5 years were 95.95%±0.74%, 92.52%±4.11% and 80.52%±4.11% respectively; the anticoagulant related bleeding free rates for 5 years, 10 years and l5 years were 94.64%±1.75%, 89.55%±3.28% and 79.39%±4.43% respectively.There were 141 patients(67.46%) in New York Heart Association(NYHA) classⅠ, 56 patients(26.79%) in class Ⅱ, 10 patients(4.78%) in class Ⅲ and 2 patients(0.95%) in class Ⅳ. Conclusion The results of follow-up for 15 years suggest that the Chinesemade C-L pugesturt tilting disc medical mechanical valve is a reliable and safe choice for mitral valve replacement.