Subacute left ventricular free wall rupture complicating acute myocardial infarction. Successful surgical repair with a sutureless technique.

The high mortality index related to surgical therapy with direct suture of rupture of left ventricular free wall following acute myocardial infarction, suggested we analyze and use alternative techniques. So we applied sutureless technique described by Padro to two patients. We used a Teflon patch fixed to the ventricular wall with a biocompatible synthetic glue, an ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate monomer, without any direct suturing of the infarcted myocardium.

[Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of functional parameters of mechanical and biological valve prostheses].

We studied and compared functional parameters in 314 valvular prostheses. The following parameters have been calculated: mean transvalvular gradients for aortic and mitral prostheses and functional area by Pht (pressure half time) for mitral prostheses. All patients with important depression in myocardial function, tachycardia or malfunctioning prostheses were excluded.

[Serial Doppler echocardiography follow-up studies in the postoperative evaluation of severe pulmonary hypertension following surgery for mitral and mitral-aortic defects].

Between January 1987 and December 1991 26 patients with mitral and mitro-aortic disease and severe pulmonary hypertension (> or = 60 mmHg) were subjected to surgery. In 22 patients we have studied systolic pulmonary pressures by echocardiography-Doppler examination at 3-6 and 12 months from surgery. We noticed a decrease in pulmonary pressure values in all patients within 3 months from surgery (mean values pre-op 75 +/- 12.

Emergency surgical treatment for total left main coronary artery occlusion. A report of 2 cases.

Treatment of total left main coronary artery occlusion is rarely reported (84 chronic and acute cases in the world literature), due to the high mortality rate from massive myocardial infarction. Acute occlusions have been treated with intracoronary streptokinase, with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, or with both. To date, there has been no report of successful surgical revascularization in an acute case.

Surgical management of intracardiac myxomas. A 16-year experience.

Twenty-six patients with an intracardiac myxoma underwent surgical resection at our institution from 1977 through 1992. Left atrial myxoma was diagnosed in 22 patients, left ventricular in 1, right atrial in 2, and right ventricular in 1. Six patients were asymptomatic; preoperative symptoms included dyspnea, arrhythmias, embolic episodes, and syncope.