Publication Date
10-1-2016
Journal
The Texas Heart Journal
DOI
10.14503/THIJ-14-4797
PMID
27777518
Publication Date(s)
October 2016
Language
English
PMCID
PMC5067028
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
10-1-2016
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-Print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Cardiac surgical procedures/methods, child, preschool, follow-up studies, heart septal defects, ventricular/complications/surgery, hypertension, pulmonary, prospective studies, tricuspid valve surgery
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Temporary tricuspid valve detachment improves the operative view of certain congenital ventricular septal defects (VSDs), but its long-term effects on tricuspid valve function are still debated.
From 2002 through 2012, we performed a prospective study of 68 children (mean age, 1.28 ± 1.01 yr) who underwent transatrial closure of VSDs following temporary tricuspid valve detachment. Sixty patients had conoventricular and 8 had mid-muscular VSDs. All were in sinus rhythm. Seventeen patients had systemic pulmonary artery pressures. Preoperative echocardiograms showed trivial-to-mild tricuspid regurgitation in 62 patients and tricuspid dysplasia with severe regurgitation in 6 patients. Patients were clinically and echocardiographically monitored at 30 postoperative days, 3 months, 6 months, every 6 months thereafter for the first 2 years, and then once a year.
No in-hospital or late death was observed at the median follow-up evaluation of 5.9 years. Mean intensive care unit and hospital stays were 1.6 ± 1.1 and 7.3 ± 2.7 days, respectively. Residual small VSDs occurred in 3 patients, and temporary atrioventricular block in one. After VSD repair, 62 patients (91%) had trivial or mild tricuspid regurgitation, and 6 moderate. Five of these last had severe tricuspid regurgitation preoperatively and had undergone additional tricuspid valve repair during the procedure. The grade of residual tricuspid regurgitation remained stable postoperatively, and no tricuspid stenosis was documented. All patients were in New York Heart Association class I at follow-up.
Temporary tricuspid valve detachment is a simple and useful method for a complete visualization of certain VSDs without incurring substantial tricuspid dysfunction.