Surgical treatment for aortic stenosis includes aortic valve replacement, which alleviates symptoms and increases longevity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of left ventricular dysfunction after aortic valve replacement. Left ventricular function was assessed by a retrospective review of preoperative and postoperative ejection fractions (EF) using echocardiography. The ...

BACKGROUND Few studies have reported population-based outcomes for aortic valve replacement patients. METHODS Patients with severe aortic valve stenosis who underwent aortic valve replacement with or without concomitant coronary artery bypass graft surgery from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2005, were included in the study. Statistical models were developed to identify significant risk fac...

AIM While the incidence of rheumatic heart disease has declined dramatically over the last half-century, the number of valve surgeries has not changed. This study was undertaken to define the most common type of valvular heart disease requiring surgery today, and determine in-hospital surgical mortality and length-of-stay (LOS) for isolated aortic or mitral valve surgery in a United States tert...

OBJECTIVES We sought to determine whether limited left atrial Maze surgery encircling each of the pulmonary veins, using cooled-tip radiofrequency (RF) ablation, is as effective as the bi-atrial approach? BACKGROUND The original Cox/Maze operation effectively restores sinus rhythm (SR) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Ablation procedures aimed at eliminating pulmonary vein foci have p...

OBJECTIVE To assess the outcome of percutaneous balloon dilatation of the mitral valve in critically ill young patients with intractable heart failure. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of all such patients presenting over a period of 4 years. PATIENTS Of 432 consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous balloon dilatation of the mitral valve, 12 (mean age 29 years) with intractable heart failur...

introduction tetralogy of fallot (tof) in the absent of pulmonary valve is a rare congenital anomaly (3%of tof patients). case presentation we are presenting an 18- year-old male with history of dyspnea on exertion and cyanosis since childhood. despite the diagnosis of congenital heart disease, no intervention was done due to his poor socioeconomic culture. at age of 18, he referred to our cent...

OBJECTIVE To present long-term results after mitral valve replacement with stent mounted glutaraldehyde preserved aortic allografts in patients older than 15 years. The clinical support for this study was to combine the glutaraldehyde technique of biological tissue preservation with the advantages of allografts when compared to xenografts. This was demonstrated in previous studies using other m...

AIMS To evaluate the feasibility of papillary muscle shortening in a specific group of high risk patients with ischaemic mitral regurgitation undergoing mitral valve reconstruction. BACKGROUND From January 1996 to December 1997, 712 (10.1%) out of a total of 7042 open heart patients underwent mitral valve surgery in our hospital. Mitral valve reconstruction was performed in 408 of these patie...

BACKGROUND The West African sub-region has poor health infrastructure. Mechanical valve replacement in children from such regions raises important postoperative concerns; among these, valve-related morbidity and complications of lifelong anticoagulation are foremost. Little is known about the long-term outcome of mechanical valve replacement in West Africa. We sought to determine the outcome of...