Publication Date
2-1-2014
Journal
The Texas Heart Journal
DOI
10.14503/THIJ-13-3241
PMID
24512397
Publication Date(s)
February 2014
Language
English
PMCID
PMC3967482
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
2-4-2014
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-Print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Adult, Aged, Female, Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mitral Valve, Mitral Valve Stenosis, Papillary Muscles, Prospective Studies, Recovery of Function, Rheumatic Heart Disease, Stroke Volume, Systole, Time Factors, Treatment Outcome, Ultrasonography, Ventricular Function, Left
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Subvalvular apparatus preservation is an important concept in mitral valve replacement (MVR) surgery that is performed to remedy mitral regurgitation. In this study, we sought to determine the effects of papillary muscle repositioning (PMR) on clinical outcomes and echocardiographic left ventricular function in rheumatic mitral stenosis patients who had normal left ventricular systolic function.
We prospectively assigned 115 patients who were scheduled for MVR surgery with mechanical prosthesis to either PMR or MVR-only groups. Functional class and echocardiographic variables were evaluated at baseline and at early and late postoperative follow-up examinations. All values were compared between the 2 groups.
The PMR group consisted of 48 patients and the MVR-only group of 67 patients. The 2 groups’ baseline characteristics and surgery-related factors (including perioperative mortality) were similar. During the 18-month follow-up, all echocardiographic variables showed a consistent improvement in the PMR group; the mean left ventricular ejection fraction deteriorated significantly in the MVR-only group. Comparison during follow-up of the magnitude of longitudinal changes revealed that decreases in left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic diameters and in left ventricular sphericity indices, and increases in left ventricular ejection fractions, were significantly higher in the PMR group than in the MVR-only group.
This study suggests that, in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis and preserved left ventricular systolic function, the addition of papillary muscle repositioning to valve replacement with a mechanical prosthesis improves left ventricular dimensions, ejection fraction, and sphericity index at the 18-month follow-up with no substantial undesirable effect on the surgery-related factors.