ObjectiveTo monitor surgical quality and analyze learning curve of minimally invasive mitral valve replacement (MVR)through right minithoracotomy with cumulative sum analysis (CUSUM analysis). MethodsClinical data of 60 consecutive patients who underwent minimally invasive MVR through right minithoracotomy in the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from June 2011 to April 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 32 male and 28 female patients with their age of 28-53 (34.67±7.11)years and their heart function ranging from NYHA class Ⅱ to Ⅳ. There were 31 patients with mitral stenosis (MS), 19 patients with mitral regurgitation (MR), and 10 patients with MS and MR. According to the surgical sequence, all the patients were divided into 3 groups (group A, B and C)with 20 patients in each group. Surgical outcomes were compared among the 3 groups, and surgical quality was analyzed with descriptive statistics and CUSUM curves. ResultsAortic cross-clamp time, cardiopulmonary bypass time and operation time of group C were significantly shorter than those of group A and group B (aortic cross-clamp time of group C vs. group A:50.35±2.30 minutes vs. 66.15±8.38 minutes; operation time of group C vs. group B:167.50±4.63 minutes vs. 178.60±4.49 minutes, P < 0.05). In-hospital mortality was 3.3% (2/60). CUSUM analysis showed a significant learning curve effect, although surgical quality remained in control during the study period. Surgical failure rate was lower than 80% after about 45 operations, indicating that failure rate was 10% lower than expectation. ConclusionMinimally invasive MVR is safe and reliable, and CUSUM analysis is a simple statistical method to monitor surgical quality.
ObjectiveTo investigate the risk or protective factors for systemic embolism (SE) in patients undergoing bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement (MVR). Methods Between October 2002 and March 2013, a total of 146 patients underwent bioprosthetic MVR. There were 78 females and 68 males with mean age of 66.23±5.17 years. The primary reason of mitral valve disease was mitral valve degeneration or mitral valve leaflet prolapse in 40 patients, rheumatic heart valve disease in 101 patients, ischemic heart disease in 3 patients, infectious endocarditis in 1 patient, and mechanical peri-valvular leak in 1 patient. All patients were given anticoagulation therapy with warfarin for 3 months. Thereafter, antithrombotic medication was prescribed according to the surgeon's preference. The patients were followed up by telephone or mail for postoperative condition and SE events. ResultsSixteen (10.96%) patients developed SE events, including cerebral infarction in 13 cases, transient ischemic attack (TIA) in 2 cases and spleen infarction in 1 case. A total of 16 patients died during follow-up. The 1-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year cumulative survival rate after surgery was 95.2%, 93.6%, 92.5% and 88.3% respectively. Patients with SE events had lower rate of left atrial appendage obliteration than those without SE events (25.0% vs. 78.6%, P=0.015). Multivariate analysis showed that left atrial appendage obliteration was an independent protective factor for SE in patients undergoing bioprosthetic MVR (P=0.041). ConclusionLeft atrial appendage obliteration is a major protective factor for systemic embolism in patients undergoing bioprosthetic MVR no matter what antithrombotic medication is taken.
Minimally invasive cardiac surgeries are the trend in the future. Among them, robotic cardiac surgery is the latest iteration with several key-hole incision, 3-dimentional visualization, and articulated instrumentation of 7 degree of ergonomic freedom for those complex procedures in the heart. In particular, robotic mitral valve surgery, as well as coronary artery bypass grafting, has evolved over the last decade and become the preferred method at certain specialized centers worldwide because of excellent results. Other cardiac procedures are in various stages of evolution. Stepwise innovation of robotic technology will continue to make robotic operations simpler, more efficient, and less invasive, which will encourage more surgeons to take up this technology and extend the benefits of robotic surgery to a larger patient population.
ObjectiveTo investigate the feasibility, safety and effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation with mitral valve replacement under totally thoracoscopic surgery.MethodsThe clinical data of 107 patients with rheumatic mitral disease and atrial fibrillation who underwent mitral valve replacement and radiofrequency ablation at the same time in our hospital from January 2014 to October 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups: a totally thoracoscopic surgery group (n=51, including 20 males and 31 females, aged 50.57±5.24 years) and a median sternotomy group (n=56, including 21 males and 35 females, aged 52.12±5.59 years) according to the surgical methods. The preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative data of the patients were compared.ResultsAll operations were successfully completed without death. In terms of bleeding volume, drainage volume, ventilator-assisted breathing time, hospital stay and incision length, the totally thoracoscopic surgery group was better than the median sternotomy group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The cardiopulmonary bypass time and radiofrequency ablation time in the totally thoracoscopic surgery group were longer than those in the median sternotomy group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the operation time, aortic occlusion time, postoperative complications, left ventricular ejection fraction, left atrial diameter and sinus rhythm maintenance between the two groups (P>0.05). There was no atrioventricular block, pulmonary vein stenosis, atrioesophageal fistula, coronary artery injury, stroke or hemorrhage during the follow-up.ConclusionRadiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation with mitral valve replacement under totally thoracoscopic surgery is safe and effective, and it is worthy of clinical application.
Mitral valve regurgitation is one of the most common heart valve diseases, of which secondary mitral valve regurgitation (sMR) has large proportion and poor prognosis. For patients who still have symptoms after the guideline-directed management and therapy, the effects of surgery are controversial, and transcatheter therapy provides a new option. Transcatheter edge-to-edge repair has become one of the recommended therapies by the guidelines, meanwhile transcatheter mitral valve annuloplasty and transcatheter mitral valve replacement are developing. However, the etiological mechanism of sMR is complex and diverse. There is an interaction between cardiac function and structure and sMR in dynamic change. It brings challenges to the selection of indicators and evaluation timing. The complex anatomical structure also makes it more difficult to design instruments and select surgical methods. This paper reviews the challenges and progress of transcatheter therapy for sMR.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of different surgical strategies for moderate functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) at the time of aortic valve replacement (AVR) on patients' prognosis.MethodsA total of 118 AVR patients, including 84 males and 34 females, aged 58.1±12.4 years, who were complicated with moderate FMR were retrospectively recruited. Patients were divided into three groups according to the treatment strategy of mitral valve: a group A (no intervention, n=11), a group B (mitral valve repair, n=51) and a group C (mitral valve replacement, n=56). The primary endpoint was the early and mid-term survival of the patients, and the secondary endpoint was the improvement of FMR.ResultsThe median follow-up time was 29.5 months. Five patients died perioperatively, all of whom were from the group C. Early postoperative FMR improvement rates in the group A and group B were 90.9% and 94.1% (P=0.694). The mid-term mortality in the three groups were 0.0%, 5.9% and 3.9%, respectively (P=0.264), while the incidences of major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events were 0.0%, 9.8% and 17.7%, respectively (P=0.230). Improvements of FMR in the group A and group B were 100.0% and 94.3% at the mid-term follow-up (P>0.05).ConclusionFor patients receiving AVR with moderate FMR, conservative treatment or concurrent repair of mitral valve may be more reasonable, while mitral valve replacement may increase the incidence of early and mid-term adverse events.
Objective To analyze the clinical efficacy and survival outcome of totally thoracoscopic redo mitral valve replacement and evaluate its efficiency and safety. Methods The clinical data of patients with totally thoracoscopic redo mitral valve replacement in Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital between 2013 and 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to determine the risk factors for postoperative death. Results There were 48 patients including 29 females and 19 males with a median age of 53 (44, 66) years. All the procedures were performed successfully with no conversion to median sternotomy. A total of 15, 10 and 23 patients received surgeries under non-beating heart, beating heart and ventricular fibrillation, respectively. The in-hospital mortality rate was 6.25% (3/48), and the incidence of early postoperative complications was 18.75% (9/48). Thirty-five (72.92%) patients had their tracheal intubation removed within 24 hours after the operation. The 1- and 6-year survival rates were 89.50% (95%CI 81.30%-98.70%) and 82.90% (95%CI 71.50%-96.20%), respectively. Age>65 years was an independent risk factor for postoperative death (P=0.04). Conclusion Totally thoracoscopic redo mitral valve replacement is safe and reliable, with advantages of rapid recovery, reducing blood transfusion rate, reducing postoperative complications and acceptable long-term survival rate. It is worthy of being widely popularized in the clinic.
Mitral regurgitation is the most common heart valvular disease at present. In the past, mitral regurgitation was mainly treated by surgical mitral valve repair or replacement. However, with the progress of transcatheter interventional techniques and instruments in recent years, transcatheter mitral valve interventional therapy has gradually shown its advantages and benefited patients. The purpose of this article is to review the progress of transcatheter mitral valve intervention in this year, and to provide prospects for the future of transcatheter mitral valve treatment.
Objective To compare the mid- and long-term clinical results of mitral valve plasty and mitral valve replacement in the treatment of functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). MethodsPatients with FMR who underwent surgical treatment in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command from 2012 to 2021 were collected. The patients who underwent mitral valve arthroplasty were divided into a MVP group, and those who underwent mitral valve replacement into a MVR group. The preoperative clinical data, operative and perioperative data of the two groups were analyzed retrospectively, and the mid- and long-term follow-up results were compared. Results Finally 236 patients were included. There were 100 patients in the MVP group and 136 patients in the MVR group. The total follow-up rate was 100.0%, the longest follow-up was 10 years, and the average follow-up time was 3.60±2.55 years. There were 14 cumulative deaths in the MVP group and 19 in the MVR group. There was no statistical difference in baseline data between the two groups (P＞0.05). There was no statistical difference between the MVP group and the MVR group in the incidence of adverse events such as extracorporeal circulation time, aortic occlusion time, hospital stay time in the ICU, intraoperative blood loss, or hospitalization death (P＞0.05), but the time of mechanical ventilation in the MVP group was significantly shorter than that in the MVR group, and the difference was statistically significant(P=0.022).There were statistical differences in the left atrial diameter, left ventricular end-diastolic inner diameter, left ventricular end-systolic inner diameter and cardiac function grade between the two groups compared with those before surgery (P<0.05). The left ventricular ejection fraction in the postoperative MVP group was statistically higher than that before surgery (P<0.05), but there was no statistical difference in the postoperative MVR group compared with that before surgery (P>0.05). The LAD in the MVP group was reduced compared with the MVR group, and the difference was statistically different (P<0.05). The recurrence mitral regurgitation in MVP group was higher than that in MVR group, and the difference was statistically significant（10% vs.1.5%, P=0.003）. The cumulative survival rate (P=0.605) and mortality from cardiovascular events (P =0.880) were not statistically significant in the two groups by Kalan-Meier survival analysis. Conclusion The safety and medium- and long-term clinical efficacy of MVP in the treatment of FMR patients were better than MVR, and the left atrium and left ventricle diameter are statistically reduced, and cardiac function is statistically improved. However, the surgeon needs to be well aware of the indications for the MVP procedure to reduce the rate of MR recurrence.
Thoracoscopic mitral valve replacement is a common minimally invasive cardiac surgery procedure. However, small annulus, severe calcification of the annulus, and severe thickening of the posterior valve leaflet or sub valvular structure are the difficulties of thoracoscopic mitral valve replacement. Improper treatment can easily lead to left ventricular rupture or prosthesis-patient mismatch. This paper reports a thoracoscopic mitral bioprosthesis replacement case using the "chimney" technique in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and summarizes its operating key points. The patient was a 68-year-old female, weighing 36 kg. The preoperative diagnosis was rheumatic mitral stenosis and atrial fibrillation, the preoperative trans-thoracic echocardiogram showed the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was 39 mm. The surgical effect was satisfactory. The patient was in good condition at the follow-up 2 months after the operation.