ABSTRACT
Twenty-five patients with diagnosis of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, who had undergone corrective surgery, were studied at variable time period after surgery with 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring (Holter) and echocardiography. The aim of this study was to record arrhythmias, if any, and to correlate occurrence of arrhythmia with adequacy of repair and other related variables. All the patients were clinically asymptomatic. Twenty-four hours ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring of these patients showed the presence of significant arrhythmias in 21 of the 25 patients. These included supraventricular ectopics in 19 patients, ventricular ectopics in 8, atrioventricular block in 2, right bundle branch block and atrial fibrillation 1 each and atrial tachycardia in 2 patients. There was no correlation between development of arrhythmia and age at repair, type of connection, operative approach and adequacy of repair. The study indicates that cardiac arrhythmias can occur in otherwise asymptomatic patients after correction for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Thus, these patients require long-term follow-up, even if they are asymptomatic.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Arrhythmias, Cardiac/diagnosis , Cardiac Surgical Procedures/adverse effects , Child , Child, Preschool , Electrocardiography, Ambulatory , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Heart Defects, Congenital/surgery , Humans , Incidence , Infant , Male , Postoperative Period , Prognosis , Pulmonary Veins/abnormalities , Risk AssessmentABSTRACT
From March 1994 to March 1997, 36 patients with aortic valve endocarditis were managed surgically. Of these, 30 patients had native valve endocarditis and six had prosthetic valve endocarditis. In patients with native valve endocarditis, surgical procedures included aortic valve repair (n=6), homograft aortic valve replacement (n=9), Ross procedure (n=5) and prosthetic aortic valve replacement (n=10). There were three early and two late deaths in this group. In patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis, aortic valve replacement with a homograft was performed in all. Active infection and prosthetic valve endocarditis were the most important predictors of early mortality. The availability of a homograft valve provides an alternative to prosthetic valve replacement in patients with aortic valve endocarditis.