• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.635-641
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• 1987

Recently, direct atriopulmonary anastomosis was performed in 2 patients without using pericardium or prosthetic material. Case 1 A 13-year-old male patient whose diagnosis was tricuspid atresia [type lb] received direct atriopulmonary anastomosis successfully with good clinical and hemodynamic results. Nine months after operation, he has an increased exercise tolerance. Case 2 A 4-year-old female patient whose diagnosis was DORV with pulmonary atresia in A-V discordance had a formidable surgical challenge. A large-diameter direct atriopulmonary anastomosis was performed after the closure of the right atrioventricular valve. Her postoperative course has been even in 20th postoperative day.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.371-382
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• 1985

Over the past 4 decades after World War II a great deal of data and clinical experiences have been accumulated relating to the diagnosis and surgical treatment of congenital and acquired cardiovascular diseases in Korea. Clinical data on cardiovascular surgical cases performed in all 22 hospitals for open heart surgery in Korea was collected from it`s starting up to December 1984. The first recorded open heart surgery for a young adult atrial septal defect was performed by Young Kyoon Lee, M.D. on August 7, 1959, Seoul National University Hospital, Korea. And, some scattered reports on cardiovascular surgical cases in it`s early period have changed recently the number of hospitals for open heart surgery and clinical cases enormously in total amount of 13, 100 cardiovascular operations performed on 12, 990 cases up to December 1984. Of the total 13, 100 cardiovascular operations, congenital cardiovascular anomaly occupied 70%. Of the congenital cases, 6, 580 operations for acyanotic group [operative mortality 4.5%], and 2, 489 operations for cyanotic group [operative mortality 20%]. The incidence of congenital cardiovascular anomaly in order of frequency was ventricular septal defect [29%], patent ductus arteriosus [26%], Tetralogy of Fallot [22%], atrial septal defect [8, 6%], pulmonary valve stenosis [3.0%], and endocardial cushion defect [1.1%]. Of the 3, 412 valvular heart disease cases, which occupied 85% of total 4, 031 acquired cardiovascular disease, individual incidence was in mitral 2, 565 [63.5%], double valve 451 [11.1%], and simple aortic valve 351 [8.7%]. Total number of valve replaced, mechanical and tissue, was 2, 795, and 1, 884 for mitral, 808 for aortic, and 103 for tricuspid in position. Operative mortality for prosthetic valve replacement in total was 9.8%. Remained acquired cardiovascular cases chronic constrictive pericarditis [7.9%], cardiac tumor [1.9%], coronary artery bypass [1.8%], cardiac trauma [1.2%] and less than 1% of thoracic aortic aneurysm. Overall operative mortality for open and non-open cardiovascular surgical operation was 7.7% [congenital acyanotic group 3.2%, congenital cyanotic group 19.4%, and acquired group 7.8%]. In conclusion, present status of cardiovascular surgery in Korea is stabilized with accumulation of clinical cases and experiences, and the future in the field of cardiovascular surgery is promising, especially in the infant cardiac surgery and aortocoronary bypass surgery, with abrupt increase of specialized cardiac centers, trained specialists, and expanding social health insurance.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 1996

Between January 1986 and June 1994, 23 patients underwent surgical intervention for infective endocarditis at Wonkwang University Hospital. There were 13 male and 5 female, ran ing in age from 13 to 67(mean 43.7 $\pm$ 5.8) years. 21 had native valve endocarditis and 2 had prosthetic valve endocardits. The most common causative organism was streptococci in 9 patients, and the others were staphylococci in 7 patients and unknown in 7 patients. The infection was in the mitral valve in 10 patients, the aortic valve in 6 patients, the aortic and mitral In 5 patients, 2 in tricuspid. Surgical indications for surgery were intractable congestive heart failure, giant growing vegetation and severe valvular insufficiency. There were 3 perioperative death (13%) and no late death. The main causes of death were cerebral embolism in 2 due to recurrent endocarditis and low cardiac output in 1. By NYHA functional classification, all patients were in class III or IV preoperatively, and all patients were improved postoperatively with HYHA functional classification in class I or II. In conclussion, early operative intervention is life-salving in patients with persistent or progres ive congestive heart failure, irrespective of the activity of the infectious process or the duration of antibiotic therapy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.272-280
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• 1994

Total 400 St.Jude Medical Bileaflet Valves were implanted in 336 pts from January 1983 to June 1993; 64 were aortic, 205 were mitral, 64 were double valve and 3 were tricuspid position. The follow up period extended from 6 months to 10 years[mean 24.3 months]. Male to female ratio was 1:1.7. There were total 27 deaths[cardiac related 20, cardiac non-related 7]. Overall mortality was 2.9%/pt-yr. There were 10 early deaths[3.0%] and 10 late cardiac related deaths [3.0%]. Prosthetic valve related complications occurred in 19 patients[5.7%] and among them, seven died; four died of thromboembolic events, two died of anticoagulants therapy related hemorrhagic complications and one died of bacterial endocarditis. NYHA class improved significantly especially in aortic valve replacement and double valve replacement. In AVR cases, the mean NYHA was 2.8 preoperatively and 1.3 postoperatively. And in DVR cases, 3.3 preoperatively and 2.2 postoperatively. The decision to employ a particular prosthesis was made according to the anticipated or known complications of the valve. The St.Jude Medical Valve retains all the hazards of other mechanical valves, most notably, thromboembolism. But the hemodynamic performance of St.Jude Medical Valve compared most favorably with other substitute valves in many reports. 0ur experience didn`t show any differences compared other authors in terms of valve related complication. So we concluded St. Jude Medical Valve can be primarily considered in the selection of artificial valve except in the patients when the usage of anticoagulant therapy is contraindicated.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.460-471
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• 1994

Between Feb. 1990 and Aug. 1993, 180 cases of the open heart surgery were performed under cardiopulmonary bypass in the Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular surgery, Gil General Hospital. There were 83 cases with congenital heart diseases [CHD] and 97 cases with acquired heart diseases [AHD]. The CHD consisted of 78 acyanotic[mortality: 3.8 %] and 5 cyanotic cases with heart anomaly[mortality:l case]. The AHD were 97 cases, which contained 53 valvular, 27 ischemic heart diseases, 10 aortic diseases, 5 cases with myxoma, 1 case with post-infarct VSD, and 1 case with removal of infected pacing wire in right ventricle. In the 53 valvular heart diseases, there were 45 cases with valve replacement[MVR 27, AVR 9,MVR + AVR 9] and 8 cases with valvuloplasty. The number of the implanted prosthetic valves were 53. In MVR, 25 St. Jude, 6 Sorin, 3 Carpentier-Edward and 2 Intact medical valves were used. In aortic position, 13 St. Jude, 3 Sorin and 1 Intact medical valves were applied. The operative mortality was 5.6 % [3/53]. The annuloplasty applying artificial ring was performed in 17 patients[4 cases associated with MVR] and the number of the implanted ring was 19, which included 14 Duran ring[10 mitral, 4 tricuspid] and 5 Carpentier ring [3 mitral, 22 tricuspid]. In the 27 ischemic heart diseases, there were 9 cases with left main coronary artery lesions, 7 one vessel, 5 two vessels, and 6 three vessels. Average number of anastomosis was 2.8 per patient. The operative mortality was 14.3 % [4/27]. Among the 10 patients with aortic diseases, 7 cases were aortic dissection[type A: 5, type B: 2] and 3 cases were descending thoracic aortic aneurysm. The operative morality occurred in 3 cases. The overall mortality and the operative mortality of congenital and acquired heart disease was 7.8 %, 4.8% and 10.4%, respectively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1020-1029
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• 1988

The authors evaluated 153 patients who had undergone cardiac valve replacement between October 1979 and July 1988. The results are as follows: l. Out of 153 patients, there were 56 males and 97 females ranging from 15 to 62 years of age with a mean of 37 years. 2. Isolated mitral valve replacement took place in 82 patients, aortic valve replacement[AVR] in 16, double valve replacement[DVR] in 34, AVR combined with open mitral commissurotomy in 19, and tricuspid valve replacement[TVR] was done in 2 patients. 3. 153 patients had 187 prosthetic valves replaced with Ionescu-Shiley valves[16], Carpentier-Edwards[36], Bjork-Shiley[19], St. Jude Medical[108], and Duromedics[8]. 4. Our of 98 patients with atrial fibrillation[ 64% of a total 153 patients ] during the preoperative period, 22 patients recovered NSR[ 22/98, NSR recovery rate 22.4%] after valvular surgery and remaining 76 patients revealed persisting atrial fibrillation[76/153, 49.7% ]. 5. Preoperative episodes of systemic arterial embolization were attained in 9 patients[9/153, 6% ], and left atrial thrombi were confirmed in 22 patients intraoperatively[ 22/153, 14% ]. Of these, only one patient, however, demonstrated the correspondence of preoperative embolization and intraoperative existence of LA thrombi. 6. With mechanical prostheses, anticoagulant therapy was begun 48 hours after operation with sodium warfarin[2.5-5.0mg/day], maintaining the prothrombin time between 16 and 18 seconds or 30 to 50% of control values and continued for life. With tissue prostheses, sodium warfarin was continued for 3 to 6 months and converted into buffered ASA[ 325 mg/day ] for one year. 7. The mean follow-up for the survivors was 30.1 months, with a range from 3 months to 9 years. All suspected or confirmed thromboembolic episodes counted as events and occurred in 4 patients[ 1.04%/patient-year] with mechanical valve replacement. No persistent paralysis or death was noted. Late complications have not yet occurred in the patients with isolated MVR and AVR. 8. There were remarkable structural failures of tissue valves in 3 patients[ 1.9%/patient-year ], while no instance of failure of a mechanical valve. 9. There were 10 operative early deaths[10/153, 6.5%] and 5 late deaths[5/153, 3.3%]. Consequently, overall mortality was 9.8%[ 15/153] during follow-up period. 10. We currently favor using the St. Jude Medical valve in all patients requiring valve replacement except in those who can not take warfarin anticoagulation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1183-1194
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• 1998

Background: From Sept. 1985 to Sept. 1997, 2,000 cases of open heart surgery(OHS) were performed in the Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University. Material and Method: Among the total of 2,000 cases of OHS, 1532 cases were congenital heart disease(CHD) and 468 cases were acquired heart disease(AHD). The age distribution was 9 days(4.0kg) to 68 years in CHD and 11 to 66 years in AHD. In 1532 cases of CHD, there were 1403 acyanotic cases and 129 cyanotic cases. Result: The CHD cases consisted of 940 ventricular septal defects(61.4%), 324 atrial septal defects(21.1%), 112 tetralogy of Fallot(7.3%), 46 pulmonary stenosis(3%), 38 endocardial cushion defects(2.5%), 15 valsalva sinus ruptures(1%), 4 transposition of great arteries (0.3%), 4 double outlet right ventricles(0.3%), and etc. Corrective operations were applied for congenital heart disease with a result of 3.1% hospital mortality. Of 468 AHD, 381 cases were valvular heart diseases, 48 ischemic heart diseases, 12 cardiac tumors, 8 annuloaortic ectasias, 16 dissecting aortic aneurysms and etc. In the 381 valvular heart diseases, there were 226 single valve replacements(36 aortic valve replacements(AVR), 188 mitral valve replacements(MVR), and 2 tricuspid valve replacements(TVR), among these were 71 cases of double valve replacements(AVR & MVR), 54 cases of MVR with tricuspid valve annuloplasty(TVA), and 18 cases of AVR, MVR with TVA. The total implanted prosthetic valves were 466. In MVR, 123 St. Jude Medical valves, 90 Carpentier-Edwards valves, 65 CarboMedics valves, 42 Sorin valves and 16 other valves were used. In AVR, 68 St. Jude Medical valves, 36 CarboMedics valves, 14 Carpentier-Edwards valves and 9 other valves were used. Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery(CABG) were performed in 48 cases. The patterns of bypass graft were 14 patients of single vessel graft, 21 patients of two vessels graft, 10 patients of three vessels graft and 3 patients of four vessels graft. Conclusion: The hospital operation mortality rate of congenital acyanotic, cyanotic and acquired heart diseases were 2.0%, 15.5%, and 5.1% respectively. The overall mortality rate was 3.6%(72/2,000).

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.663-669
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• 1997

This is a report on the clinical outcome and hemodynamic profile of the ATSwcardiac valve prosthesis, which is a recently introduced pyrolytic carbon bileaflet prosthesis. We retrospectively reviewed the early outcome of 100 consecutive patients who underwent isolated cardiac valve replacement with the ATS(w prosthesis from October 1994 through June 1996 at our hospital. All patients were evaluated with Doppler echocardiography before discharge from the hospital. The mean age of the patients was 48.6 years(range: 2 to 74). A tota of 124 prosthesis were implanted; 71 mitral, 46 aortic, and 7 tricuspid. The two most frequently used sizes were 27 mm(40.8%) and 29 mm(35.2%) in the mitral position, and 23 mm(30.4%) and 21 mm(28.3%) in the aortic position. There was no early or late death. The total follow-up period was 950 patient-months with 99% follow-up rate. Serious late morbidity occurred in three patients; reoperation in two patients for late rupture of Sinus of Valsava in one and for endocarditis with prosthetic dehiscence in the other, and intracranial hemorrhage due to hypertension in one patient. There has been no thromboembolic complication or structural valval deterioration. In the mitral position, the average values of peak and mean transprosthetic pressure gradients and valve area calculated from pressure half time were 6.9$\pm$2.8 mmHg, 2.6$\pm$ 1.5 mmHg, and 2.7 $\pm$0.8 cm2 respectively. In the aortic position, the peak and mean pressure gradients'were 26.4 $\pm$ 15.9 mmHg and 14.2 $\pm$ 7.9 mmHg. For the mitra prostheses larger than 25-mm size, there was no significant difference among prosthetic sizes in terms of transprosthetic gradients, whereas there was a significant negative correlation between the prosthesis size and the transprosthetic gradients for the aortic valves. The peak and mean Pressere pradients were 52.2 $\pm$ 17.6 tmHg and 26.9$\pm$ 7.4 mmHg across the 19-mm aortic Prostheses, and 27.1 $\pm$ 11.9 mmHg and 13.3$\pm$6.6 mmHg across the 21-mm size. Above results can lead to the conclusion that the early clinical outcome of the ATS valve prosthesis is quite satisfactory, And the hemodynamic characteristics are comparable, if not better, with other bileaflet prostheses.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2004

Background: Infective endocarditis shows higher operative morbidity and mortality rates than other cardiac diseases. The vast majority of studies on infective endocarditis have been made on aortic endocarditis, with little attention having been paid to infective endocarditis on the mitral valve. This study attempts to investigate the clinical aspects and operative results of infective endocarditis on the mitral valve. Meterial and Method: The subjects of this study consist of 23 patients who underwent operations for infective endocariditis on the mitral valve from June 1995 to May 2003. Among them, 2 patients suffered from prosthetic valvular endocarditis and the other 21 from native valvular endocarditis. The subjects were evenly distributed age-wise with an average age of 44.8$\pm$15.7 (11∼66) years. Emergency operations were performed on seventeen patients (73.9%) due to large vegetation or instable hemodynamic status. In preoperative examinations, twelve patients exhibited congestive heart failure, four patients renal failure, two patients spleen and renal infarction, and two patients temporary neurological defects, while one patient had a brain abscess. Based on the NYHA functional classification, seven patients were determined to be at Grade II, 9 patients at Grade III, and 6 patients at Grade IV. Vegetations were detected in 20 patients while mitral regurgitation was dominant in 19 patients with 4 patients showing up as mitral stenosis dominant on the preoperative echocardiogram. Blood cultures for causative organisms were performed on all patients, and positive results were obtained from ten patients, with five cases of Streptococcus viridance, two cases of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, and one case each of Corynebacteriurn, Haemophillis, and Gernella. Operations were decided according to the AA/AHA guidelines (1988). The mean follow-up period was 27.6 $\pm$23.3 (1 ∼ 97) months. Result: Mitral valve replacements were performed on 43 patients, with mechanical valves being used on 9 patients and tissue valves on the other 4. Several kinds of mitral valve repair or mitral valvuloplasty were carried out on the remaining 10 patients. Associated procedures included six aortic valve replacements, two tricuspid annuloplasty, one modified Maze operation, and one direct closure of a ventricular septal defect. Postoperative complications included two cases of bleeding and one case each of mediastinitis, low cardiac output syndrome, and pneumonia. There were no cases of early deaths, or death within 30 days following the operation. No patient died in the hospital or experienced valve related complications. One patient, however, underwent mitral valvuloplasty 3 months after the operation. Another patient died from intra-cranial hemorrhage in the 31st month after the operation. Therefore, the valve-related death rate was 4.3%, and the valve-related complication rate 8.6% on mid-term follow-up. 1, 3-, and 5-year valve- related event free rates were 90.8%, 79.5%, and 79.5%, respectively, while 1, follow-up. 1, 3-, and 5-year valve- related event free rates were 90.8%, 79.5%, and 79.5%, respectively, while 1, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 100%, 88.8%, and 88.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a complete removal of infected tissues is essential in the operative treatment of infectious endocarditis of the mitral valve. It is also suggested that when infected tissues are completely removed, neither type of material nor method of operation has a significant effect on the operation result. The postoperative results also suggest the need for a close follow-up observation of the patients suspected of having brain damage, which is caused by preoperative blood contamination or emboli from vegetation, for a possible cerebral vascular injury such as mycotic aneurysm.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.792-798
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• 2002

Although there is a controversy on the optimal timing for active infective endocarditis(IE), recently good results of early surgical intervention have been published. Herein, we analyzed the results of surgery for active IE according to the duration of preoperative antibiotic treatment. Material and Method : Retrospectively, we analyzed 51 patients who underwent operation for active IE at the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery of Samsung medical center from Mar. 1995 to Oct. 2001. Male to female ratio was 39:12, mean age of the patients was 44.5$\pm$17.8 years(range : 13~74). Infected valves were mitral valve in 17(33.3%), aortic valve in 15(29.4%), mitral and aortic valve in 12(23.5), and tricuspid valve in 5(9.8%) cases. Among them, prosthetic valve endocarditis was present in 10(19.6%) cases. Infecting organism was Staphylococcus in 19(37.3%), Streptococcus in 17(33.3%), Enterococcus in 3(5.9%), fungus in 3(5.9%), and other bacteria in 5(9.8%) cases. Organism was not isolated in 6(11.8%) cases, and two organisms were isolated in 4(7.8%) cases. Dividing these patients into two groups according to the duration of preoperative antibiotic treatment(A: less than 7 days, B: more than 8 days), we compared the surgical results between the two groups. Result : There were 16 cases in group A and 35 in group B. Annular reconstruction was performed in 10(62.5%) cases in group A and 10(28.6%) cases in group B, which has statistically significance(p＜0.05). There was one early death in group B. Forty nine patients(96.1%) except two were followed up with mean follow-up duration of 28.7 $\pm$ 23.6 months. Endocarditis was recurred in one in group A, and two in group B. Three late deaths occurred in group B. Recurrence rate and survival were not statistically different between the two groups. Conclusion : Early surgery for active IE showed good results as the result of that which was performed after prolonged antibiotic treatment; therefore, we believe that early surgery for active If could effectively eradicate the infection.