OBJECTIVE Neurocognitive deficit is an important complication in patients undergoing open heart surgery. The aim of this prospective, contemporary study was to objectively measure neurocognitive brain function following mechanical mitral valve replacement and mitral valve repair. METHODS Forty consecutive, unselected patients (mechanical valve replacement n=20, mean age 65+/-14; valve repair ...

BACKGROUND Postoperative thrombocytopenia has been reported to be correlated with adverse events, but the prognostic value of baseline thrombocytopenia is unclear. This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between preoperative thrombocytopenia and adverse outcomes in patients with rheumatic heart disease who underwent valve replacement surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 1789...

A total of 14 cases of infective endocarditis (IE) in children aged 6 months to 10 years were seen from December 1987 to December 1992 at the pediatric unit of Ayatollah Taleghani Medical Center. The majority of patients (12 of 14) were between 5 and 10 years of age. Acyanotic congenital heart disease was known to preexist in 78.6% and rheumatic valvular heart disease in 21.4% of cases. Or...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the immunological profile and gene expression of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in mitral valves of patients with rheumatic fever originated from a reference service in cardiovascular surgery. METHODS This was a quantitative, observational and cross-sectional study. Thirty-five subjects (divided into four groups) participated in the study, 25 patients with chronic rheumatic heart d...

Mitral valve replacement (MVR) is usually performed in two methods of running and interrupted suturing. In running method, the suturing of the valve is usually with some traction on the annulus and also there is a risk of aortic valve injury. This study was conducted to evaluate a new technique for suturing to avoid these complications and decrease the time of cardiac arrest. One hundred an...

All patients undergoing heart surgery experience a certain amount of nonspecific myocardial injury documented by the release of cardiac biomarkers and associated with poor outcome. We investigated the role of unipolar radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation on the release of cardiac biomarkers in 71 patients undergoing mitral valve surgery and concomitant left atrial ablation case-matche...

background: this study was undertaken to compare the outcome in patients with moderate to severe ischemic mitral regurgitation (imr) undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (cabg) with either mitral valve repair or mitral valve replacement. methods: between march 2002 and february 2005, 49 consecutive patients (mean age: 62.84±8.42 years; mean euroscore: 10.03±3.12) with coronary artery dise...

 Introduction: Despite advances in cardiac surgery, many patients might still encounter some post-surgical complications and difficulties. To overcome such difficulties, they should receive the required education. In view of the fact that determining the educational needs is the first step in educational planning, the present study aims to determine the educational needs of patients undergoing ...

This case report discusses one method of dealing with the extensively calcified aorta in patients undergoing open heart surgery. Profound hypothermia and circulatory arrest was used in a patient undergoing aortic valve replacement with severe calcification of the ascending aorta and transverse arch. This patient recovered from surgery and was discharged from the hospital with no neurologic defi...

BACKGROUND Despite the established superiority of mitral repair over replacement, its adoption in the treatment of elderly patients has not been uniform, partly because of a lack of robust long-term survival data. We present the long-term survival of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries undergoing mitral valve repair and replacement over a 10-year period. METHODS AND RESULTS We used the Med...