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.
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.
Abstract: Objective To explore whether clinically mild functional tricuspid regurgitation should be addressed at the time of mitral valve repair (MVP) for moderate or severe mitral regurgitation due to myxomatous degeneration. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 135 patients with moderate or severemitral regurgitation due to myxomatous degeneration with mild functional tricuspid regurgitation. All patients were treated between January 1993 and March 2008 in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University. We divided the patients into a MVP group (n=76) and a MVP+tricuspid valvuloplasty (TVP) group(n=59) according to whether they underwent combined TVP, and observed the perioperative mortality rate, degree of tricuspid regurgitation, and compared survival rate, and freedom from longterm moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation after operation. Cox regression was used to analyzethe risk factors for longterm moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation after operations. Results (1) There were no deaths during the perioperative period, and postoperative transthoracic echocardiography of all patients indicated that tricuspid regurgitation was mild or less. (2) Survival rate at 5 years, 10 years after operations in MVP group was 98.4%, 95.0%, respectively, and survival rate at 5 years, 10 years after operations in MVP+TVP group was 100.0%, 93.7%, respectively, and there was no significant difference in the survival rate after operations between the two groups(P=0.311), butthere was a significant difference in the freedom from longterm moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation after operations between the two groups (P=0.040). Multivariate Cox regression showed that preoperative pulmonary artery pressure gt;30 mm Hg (95%CI 1.127 to 137.487, P=0.040 )and atrial fibrillation (95%CI 1.177 to 23.378, P=0.030) wereindependent risk factors for longterm moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation afteroperations.Conclusion TVP is necessary for most patients undergoing MVP for moderate or severe mitral regurgitation due to myxomatous degeneration who have coexistent mild functional tricuspid regurgitation, especially those patients with preoperative pulmonary artery pressure gt;30 mm Hg or atrial fibrillation.