REPEAT OPEN INTRA-CARDIAC OPERATION - ANALYSIS OF 50 OPERATIONS

Abstract

Between December, 1972 and February, 1976, 50 open-heart operations were performed on 44 patients who had previously had open cardiotomies. Reasons for reoperation were failure of biological tissue valves (15 cases), failure of mechanical valves (12 cases), paraprosthetic regurgitation (9 cases), recurrent or incompletely corrected congenital malformations (8 cases), prosthetic endocarditis (2 cases), misdiagnoses (2 cases) and miscellaneous causes (2 cases). Operations performed included 20 aortic valve replacements, 10 mitral valve replacements, 7 double valve replacements, 5 repairs of paraprosthetic leaks, 1 tricuspid valve replacement and 7 procedures for congenital defects. There were 2 deaths within 30 days of operation (operative mortality rate of 4%) and 6 deaths between 7 wk and 3 yr after operation. Postoperative complications were slightly more frequent than in patients undergoing similar operations for the 1st time. The late functional result was good in the majority (73%) of survivors.