BACKGROUND Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is common in patients with mitral valve disease; however, there are no straightforward, rapidly determinably criteria available for deciding whether TR repair should be performed during mitral valve replacement. The aim of our retrospective study was to identify a simple and fast criterion for determining whether TR repair should be performed in patients ...

QUESTION What factors predict postoperative pulmonary and pleural complications following aortic valve replacement? DESIGN Retrospective study. PARTICIPANTS One thousand consecutive patients who underwent aortic valve replacement with a pericardial valve between 1986 and 2006. Of these, 610 underwent also coronary artery surgery. OUTCOME MEASURES Thirty putative predictors were investigat...

1 also called the pulmonary autograft procedure, involves replacement of the diseased aortic valve with the patient’s own pulmonary valve (autograft) and implantation of a biological valve (homograft) in the pulmonary position. It was first described and pioneered by Mr. Donald Ross in 1967 in London. The procedure was popularised in the 1980s when homografts became widely available on both sid...

A 56-year-old patient with severe pulmonary hypertension developed severe tricuspid regurgitation, right-sided heart failure, and congestive hepatopathy. She was transferred for possible lung transplant and/or tricuspid valve surgery. Clinical and echocardiographic assessment provided confidence that acute tricuspid valve failure was responsible for the decompensation and that tricuspid valve r...

concomitant coronary artery bypass surgery (cabg) in patients undergoing mitral valve replacement (mvr) has been shown to be an important risk factor for hospital mortality. we evaluated preoperative characteristics, postoperative complications, in-hospital mortality rate, and length of stay in hospital for patients undergoing concurrent cabg with mvr. preoperative and postoperative clinical da...

Aortic root replacement has been described extensively for aortic allograft or pulmonary autograft insertion.1,2 One of the critical issues of this technique is the correct reimplantation of the coronary artery buttons. Kinking or torsion of the coronary arteries may lead to intraoperative hemodynamic problems or to delayed symptoms including angina pectoris and/or limited exercise tolerance ow...

INTRODUCTION The giant left atrium (GLA) is a complication of severe mitral valve disease and causes morbidity by compressing adjacent intra-thoracic structures. CLINICAL PICTURE We report 2 cases of unusual pulmonary complications of the GLA. Case 1 developed recurrent collapse of the left lung due to left main bronchus compression. Case 2 was diagnosed with right middle lobe compression and...

Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement has changed the way we approach congenital and structural heart disease. In patients with a conduit between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery or a bioprosthetic pulmonary valve, there will eventually be pulmonary valve dysfunction. This leads to right ventricular failure and possibly arrhythmias. Due to prior operations and the comorbid condition...

Carcinoid heart disease is a rare but important cause of intrinsic right heart valve disorders leading to right heart failure. Occasionally, left-sided heart valves may also be involved. The characteristic cardiac pathological findings of carcinoid heart disease are endocardial thickening as a result of fibrous deposits on the endocardium. Echocardiographic examination and right heart catheteri...

BACKGROUND Transcutaneous pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) has become an alternative to heart surgery for patients after previous right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) or pulmonary artery (PA) surgical interventions. The objective was to present immediate and long-term outcomes of trans¬cutaneous pulmonary valve replacement. METHODS Between 06/2009 and 06/2016, 46 patients underwent TPVR. ...