We experienced a case of aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting with patent bypass grafts. Based on the retrosternal anatomy assessed by preoperative angiography and thoracic computed tomography, aortic valve replacement was performed through a median resternotomy. After careful dissection of the right side of the heart and the ascending aorta, cardiopulmonary b...

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 and se...

enterococci are normal inhabitants of gastrointestinal tract, being responsible for 5 to 18% of infective endocarditis and the incidence appears to be increasing. eleven patients with enterococcal endocarditis were studied. in a case series group, 10 men (average 57 years) and one woman (37 years) were studied. two patients had rheumatic heart disease, 5 patients arteriosclerotic disease and on...

the patient was a 19 year-old woman with the diagnosis of resistant hypertension, although she was under treatment of three classes of anti-hypertensive drugs (beta blocker, angiotensin receptor blocker, diuretic) for more than one year. in physical examination there was only a significant difference between the systolic blood pressure of upper and lower extremities (200 vs. 120 mmhg), without ...

BACKGROUND We performed the first quadruple valve replacement with mechanical valves, combined with the correction of complex congenital heart disease on November 17, 1999. We report here the 11-year follow-up study. METHODS A 47-year-old man with subacute rheumatic endocarditis, a ventricular septal defect, and an obstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract required replacement of the...

In 14 patients undergoing open-heart operations the haemodynamic effects of diazepam 0.4 mgkg(-1) followed by ketamine 2 mg kg(-1) were studied. In eight patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery, the mean arterial pressure decreased significantly after diazepam from 90.3 +/-7.4 (SEM) to 78.0 +/-5.0 mm Hg (P less than 0.05). However, no changes occurred in six patients undergoing valve replac...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to compare long-term survival and valve-related complications between bioprosthetic and mechanical heart valves. BACKGROUND Different heart valves may have different patient outcomes. METHODS Five hundred seventy-five patients undergoing single aortic valve replacement (AVR) or mitral valve replacement (MVR) at 13 VA medical centers were randomized to r...

BACKGROUND The interest in beating heart surgery is growing since better results can be obtained with this procedure compared to conventional myocardial protection techniques using cardioplegic solutions. This led us to consider mitral valve replacement with beating heart. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of beating heart mitral valve replacement without cross ...

OBJECTIVES We sought to develop national benchmarks for valve replacement surgery by developing statistical risk models of operative mortality. BACKGROUND National risk models for coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) have gained widespread acceptance, but there are no similar models for valve replacement surgery. METHODS The Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Cardiac Surgery Datab...