Prosthetic valve rheumatic heart disease children

Haemodynamic variables and left ventricular function were studied before and after mitral valve replacement in 44 children age 3 to 17 years (mean 11.9 years). Thirty-nine Starr-Edwards prostheses and five Hancock prostheses were used; postoperative study took place two to six months (mean 3.9 months) after operation. Pulmonary hypertension was present preoperatively in most patients, with mean pulmonary artery pressures of 18 to 75 (mean 46.5 mmHg). Postoperatively there was a pronounced drop in pressure to a mean value of 25...

Prosthetic valve replacement in young patients has been reported to be associated with a high mortality and morbidity because of valve-related problems. Of 549 patients undergoing valve replacement with the Björk-Shiley valve prosthesis, 136 were under the age of 20 years. Sixty-four patients were under 16 years of age, the youngest being 6 years old. Of the 136 patients, 61 underwent mitral valve replacement, 50 received an aortic valve, and 25 received both aortic and mitral valves. Overall operative mortality was 10...

Analysis of our data indicates confusion about, and lack of compliance with, the AHA recommendations. Clinician level of knowledge varies with issues of risk management and by specialty group membership. Patient groups that are particularly problematic include children and all patients with congenital heart disease, those receiving a continuing antibiotic regimen for secondary prevention of rheumatic fever, those with a penicillin allergy, and those with prosthetic heart valves. Another area of clinician uncertainty concerns dental procedures which may or may not be associated with the possible causation of bacterial endocarditis...

A review of 41 children from 10 months to 16 years of age who had a valve replacement between the years 1966 to 1981 is reported. Sixty-one per cent of the valve deformities were rheumatic and 39% congenital. Twenty-two children had the mitral valve replaced, 14 had an aortic valve and 5 had both aortic and mitral valve replacement. There was a hospital mortality of 9.7% and only one later death during a mean follow up period of 6.75 years. Three children have required a second mitral valve replacement. Thrombo-embolic episodes were encountered in 4 children...

The technical difficulty of inserting a sufficiently large prosthesis in a small mitral ring has been overcome by a new technique based on the principle of complete division of the valvular ring and its unrestricted enlargment by reconstruction of the prosthetic valve. Th technique entails division of the aortic valvular ring into and through the mitral anulus and the left atrial wall. It provides wide exposure for easy double mitral and aortic valve replacement, which is performed with large prosthetic valves that are supported in part by the patch reconstruction of the incised structures...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

A total of 103 patients, age range 2 to 77 years, had some type of Carpentier reconstruction for mitral insufficiency. The mitral insufficiency resulted from ruptured chordae in 52, prolapse in 13, rheumatic fever in 16, coronary disease in eight, congenital disease in nine, and endocarditis in five. Multiple abnormalities were usually present. Four patients had severe calcification of the anulus. A reconstruction was accomplished in almost all patients. A ring annuloplasty was performed in all but two small children, but annuloplasty alone was adequate in only 17 patients...

Management of valve diseases in children demands an eclectic approach by the surgeon. Whenever possible, valve function should be restored by repair rather than prosthetic replacement. Recent evidence firmly demonstrates that there are accelerated calcification and degeneration of porcine heterografts in children, especially in the aortic and mitral positions. For this reason, we reserve the use of heterograft prostheses for the right atrioventricular position and for conduits from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery...

In order to analyze the problems associated with prosthetic valve replacement (PVR) in the pediatric population, we have reviewed 29 children, 3.5 to 15 years of age, who were operated upon from 1970 to 1986. The indications were congenital valve malformations in 16 patients, rheumatic valve disease in 7, degenerative disease in 2 and bacterial endocarditis in 4. Ten children underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR), 14 mitral valve replacement (MVR), 1 tricuspid valve replacement and 4 double valve replacement (mitral-aortic in 3 and mitral-tricuspid in 1)...

A previous study from this unit showed that only 19% of children with mitral bioprostheses were free from complications after 7 years and prompted us to review the performance of new-generation mechanical prostheses implanted in the same population group. In a 5-year period (1980-1985), 352 patients 20 years old and younger (mean age 15.3 +/- 4 years) with rheumatic valvular disease had 177 mitral, 62 aortic and 113 double (mitral + aortic) valve replacements with Medtronic-Hall or St. Jude prostheses. The overall early mortality was 6...

From 1967 through 1984, single- or double-valve replacement for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was undertaken in 184 children (aged 4 to 15 years) in Tunis. At the time of operation most patients were in an advanced state of cardiac disability, but most of them were still in sinus rhythm. A total of 222 valves were inserted. The most commonly used replacement valve was the Starr-Edwards caged-ball prosthesis, with 12 hospital deaths (6.5%). There were no hospital deaths among 19 children who had a (glutaraldehyde-treated porcine) xenograft replacement valve; however, a much higher rate of valve failure occurred later, owing to valve calcification (14 of 19 replacements, 11 requiring reoperation)...

The performance of the St. Jude prosthetic valve is reviewed in 81 patients aged 3 to 15 years. All 66 mitral (2 re-replacements), 8 aortic and 9 double valve replacements between February 1979 and August 1984 are included. The early mortality was 3.7% and actuarial analysis shows a 90% event free survival up to 5 years. Anticoagulant therapy was used in most patients, but comparison between groups receiving warfarin or aspirin or no therapy reveals no differences in the complication rate. The valve is well suited for use in children since the early degeneration seen with heterograft valves does not occur, and anticoagulation is not essential...

Sixty-four children have had a single aortic valve replacement under 16 years of age, 50 for rheumatic disease (47) or bacterial endocarditis (3) (group I) and 14 for a congenital aortic valve lesion (group II), 38 were disk prostheses and 26 were ball prostheses. Associated procedures had to be performed 31 times, with widening of a small aortic annulus by a patch in 7 patients. The early mortality was 12.5%. Of 56 survivors, 55 were followed postoperatively for a mean period of 7 years (group I: 44, group II: 11)...

IE in children is associated primarily with underlying congenital structural heart lesions, predominantly septal defects or complex lesions involving septal defects. During the past 20 years IE associated with rheumatic heart disease has declined to a negligible number. Recently nosocomial catheter-associated bacteremia has been associated with the development of IE, especially in infants. Streptococci are most frequently associated with IE involving natural valves. Although streptococci have also been implicated in cases of IE associated with previous surgery or catheter-related infection, staphylococci, Gram-negative rod species and multiple infecting species are also encountered in this setting...

We followed 155 children aged 6 to 16 years who underwent mitral valve replacement for rheumatic heart disease. Group I included 74 patients with Starr-Edwards prostheses and the mean follow-up period was 13 years. Group II was formed by 36 patients with Bjork-Shiley prostheses and a mean follow-up of 7.5 years. Group III consisted of 31 children with dura mater bioprostheses and a mean follow-up of 5.1 years. Finally, group IV included 14 patients followed a mean period of 4.9 years with Hancock xenografts...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Aortic valve prosthetic replacement in children and adolescents helps to improve their haemodynamics, and favourably affects the course of the rheumatic process. The correction of the defect is indicated in the presence of appropriate subjective and objective symptoms of aortic valve insufficiency. The lumen of the aorta was so large in many children that it permitted the employment of prostheses for adults. Calcification of the aortic valve was found in 9 of the 31 patients, which contradicts the commonly accepted belief of a low incidence of calcification in this disease in children...

Report of the case of a 12 years old boy, who because of acquired mitral valve insufficiency (grades II--III), after an illness of virus-carditis, became, in the first instance, a Bjoerk-Shiley-Ventil M27 prosthetic valvular replacement, and after 3 months, in one sitting, correction of a paravalvular leakage and prosthetic valvular replacement of the insufficient aortic valve with a Bjoerk-Shiley A23. The boy was well rehabilitated one year after the last operation. This is supported by the similar results of the echocardiographic, the ergometric and the pulmonary function tests carried out...