ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Pulmonary regurgitation is the most common complication in repaired tetralogy of Fallot patients. Severe chronic pulmonary regurgitation can be tolerated for decades, but if not treated, it can progress to symptomatic, irreversible right ventricular dilatation and dysfunction. We investigated clinical associations with pulmonary valve replacement among patients with significative pulmonary regurgitation and how interventional developments can change their management. METHODS: All adult patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot who were followed at an adult CHD Clinic at a single centre from 1980 to 2022 were included on their first outpatient visit. Follow-up was estimated from the time of correction surgery until one of the following events occurred first: pulmonary valve replacement, death, loss to follow-up or conclusion of the study. RESULTS: We included 221 patients (116 males) with a median age of 19 (18-25). At a median age of 33 (10) years old, 114 (51%) patients presented significant pulmonary regurgitation. Among patients with significant pulmonary regurgitation, pulmonary valve replacement was associated with male gender, older age at surgical repair, and longer QRS duration in adulthood. Pulmonary valve replacement was performed in 50 patients, including four transcatheter pulmonary valve implantations, at a median age of 34 (14) years. CONCLUSION: Pulmonary regurgitation affects a large percentage of tetralogy of Fallot adult patients, requiring a long-term clinical and imaging follow-up. Sex, age at surgical repair and longer QRS are associated with the need of PVR among patients with significative pulmonary regurgitation. Clinical practice and current literature support TPVI as the future gold standard intervention.
Subject(s)
Cardiac Surgical Procedures , Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation , Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency , Pulmonary Valve , Tetralogy of Fallot , Adult , Humans , Male , Pulmonary Valve/surgery , Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency/etiology , Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency/surgery , Tetralogy of Fallot/complications , Tetralogy of Fallot/surgery , Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation/adverse effects , Cardiac Surgical Procedures/adverse effects , Treatment Outcome , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
Ketamine is an important component of multimodal treatment and a commonly used anesthetic drug. However, its analgesic effects have not been fully assessed intraoperatively because of difficulties in measuring this effect. In this case report, a woman underwent general anesthesia with ketamine and its pupillary reflexes were measured to detect autonomic changes in response to pain. With increasing doses of ketamine, the pupillary light reflex and the pupillary dilation response decreased. This could be caused by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonism in the pupillary reflexes pathway or by the analgesic effects of ketamine.
