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Objectives: Chronic lung disease is a significant comorbidity in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Chronic lung disease is currently being classified and reported to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database by using either clinical interview or spirometric testing. We sought to compare the chronic lung disease classification captured by the 2 methods., Methods: We performed a prospectively designed study in which patients presenting for cardiac surgery, excluding emergent patients, were screened for a history of asthma, a history of 10 or more pack-years of smoking, a persistent cough, and the use of oxygen. Each selected patient underwent spirometry. The presence and severity of chronic lung disease was coded per Society of Thoracic Surgeons guidelines by using the 2 methods of clinical report and spirometric results. The chronic lung disease classifications were compared, and differences were determined by using concordance and discordance rates. The results were then used to construct Society of Thoracic Surgeons-predicted risk models., Results: The discordant rate was 39.1%, with underestimation of the severity of chronic lung disease in 94% of misclassified patients. This affected the Society of Thoracic Surgeons-predicted risk models for prolonged ventilation, morbidity/mortality, and mortality by increasing the predicted risk when spirometry was used for morbidity/mortality by an average of 1.5 +/- 1.2 percentage points (P < .001) and prolonged ventilation time by an average of 1.3 +/- 1.4 percentage points (P < .001)., Conclusion: The use of patient history for symptoms, medication, and/or oxygen use as the only method to determine chronic lung disease for this subgroup of patients led to underreporting of chronic lung disease and underestimation of the risk for adverse outcomes. Therefore data submission to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database should be designed to capture and correct for potential bias in the definition of chronic lung disease because the rate of spirometry in different centers in defining chronic lung disease is not regulated., (Copyright 2010 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum has continued to have a high surgical mortality. This may relate to the nonuniformity of the anomaly. We have developed a management algorithm based on the right ventricular size and coronary anatomy. Patients with a well-developed ventricle and normal coronary arteries have undergone right ventricular outflow procedures. The adequacy of their right ventricles is subsequently evaluated; some patients are candidates for a four-chamber repair, whereas others are candidates for a Fontan procedure. Patients with severe hypoplasia of the right ventricle frequently have extensive ventriculo-coronary connections, and for these patients we have developed the technique of right ventricular obliteration. Over the past 7 years, we have treated 20 patients with pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum. Fourteen of the 20 patients underwent outflow tract procedures, with no operative mortality. There were two late deaths in this group. Six patients had hypoplasia of the ventricle with ventriculo-coronary connections and underwent right ventricular obliteration. There was one operative death and one late death in the group. Overall, 95% survived the neonatal period, and 80% were still alive at the time this article was written with an average follow-up of 32 months. We conclude that pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum can be successfully managed with the use of an algorithm based on ventricular size and coronary anatomy.

The bidirectional cavopulmonary shunt improves systemic arterial oxygen saturation without increasing ventricular work or pulmonary vascular resistance. Since 1983, 17 patients have undergone a cavopulmonary shunt procedure (five primary operations, 12 secondary operations). Diagnoses were single ventricle complex (n = 4), hypoplastic right heart syndrome (n = 10), and hypoplastic left ventricle (n = 3). Age at primary operation ranged from 3 1/2 to 30 months (median 6 months). Weight ranged from 3.5 to 9.7 kg. Age at secondary operation ranged from 10 months to 14 years (median 15 months). Seven cavopulmonary shunt operations were performed without cardiopulmonary bypass (six via thoracotomy and one via sternotomy) and 10, with cardiopulmonary bypass. All patients in the bypass group had additional procedures: takedown of modified Blalock-Taussig shunt, seven patients; revision of right ventricular outflow tract, four patients; reconstruction of pulmonary arteries, four patients; tricuspid valvuloplasty, one patient; and Damus procedure, one patient. There was one (1/17) operative death (Damus procedure). One patient required early revision. Follow-up ranges from 1 to 53 months (median 23 months). Twelve of 16 had a good to excellent late result, with a rise in mean arterial oxygen saturation from 69% to 83%. Three patients died late (4 to 53 months) (pulmonary vascular disease, pulmonary arteriovenous malformations, and pneumonia, one patient each). There was one late failure (converted to Glenn shunt). The cavopulmonary shunt is an excellent palliative procedure when right atrium-pulmonary artery connection (modified Fontan) must be deferred because of age, weight, or anatomic considerations. Five patients have undergone right atrium-pulmonary artery connection later. In addition, at the time of the modified Fontan operation, the cavopulmonary shunt approach may optimize the anatomic connection (eight additional patients).

There is currently a renewed interest in the use of both fresh and commercially available frozen homograft valves for children and young adults. This has prompted us to review a series of 32 patients who received frozen homograft valves for aortic replacement between 1973 and 1975. The cryogenic technique evolved to include the use of selected antibiotics and equilibrated dimethyl sulfoxide solution to freeze homografts at a rate of 1 degrees C per minute to liquid nitrogen temperatures of -196 degrees C. Histologic sections of experimental frozen valves explanted 6 months postoperatively revealed the presence of viable donor cells, and tissue culture demonstrated the reproductive capacity of cusp fibroblasts. Of the 32 frozen viable homografts implanted in this series, 23 were inserted as free-sewn aortic replacements and nine were premounted on stents before implantation in the aortic position. There were two operative deaths, and three valves failed as a result of the technical problems of mounting in one patient and surgical insertion of a free graft in two patients. Of the 22 patients who remained at long-term risk, 13% with free-sewn grafts and 57% with premounted valves underwent reoperation for valve failure. After 10 years of follow-up, 15 (68%) of these patients, 12 (80%) with free-sewn and three (43%) with premounted valves, are alive with their original valve in place. Actuarial analysis shows that 58% of the 32 valves implanted are functional at the beginning of the eleventh year. There have been six late deaths resulting in an overall actuarial patient survival rate of 79% at 10 years and 69% after 13 years. These clinical results are believed to add support to our current application of the frozen homograft in selected patients.

A 5-year-old child with asplenia, situs inversus, single ventricle, common atrium, severe subvalvular pulmonary stenosis, 1-transposition of the great arteries, and absent inferior vena cava presented with severe limitation (resting arterial saturation 74 per cent). At operation, the systemic venous atrium was partitioned with a Dacron baffle, so that hepatic venous and coronary sinus blood was enabled to drain with the pulmonary venous blood into the single ventricle and aorta. The superior portion of this atrium was anastomosed to the divided main pulmonary artery, so that most of the systemic venous blood was allowed to flow directly to the lungs. Intraoperative hemodynamic studies revealed a pulmonary artery pressure of 12/9 mm. Hg and a superior vena caval flow that was 88 per cent of the ascending aortic blood flow. Follow-up catheterization studies revealed an intact partition, no anastomotic gradient, superior vena cava pressure of 20 mm. Hg, arterial saturation of 84 per cent, and excellent flow of contrast from superior vena cava to atrium to pulmonary artery. Exercise tolerance was markedly improved, and chronic fluid retention was not observed. This operation offers a new alternative for long-term palliation of complex lesions amenable to exclusion of the right ventricle, such as single or common ventricle with unreconstructable anomalies of the atrioventricular valves.

The acute and chronic consequences of subclavian artery transection were analyzed in the noninvasive vascular laboratory. Twenty-eight patients (aged 1 day to 4 2/12 years, median 2 months) underwent subclavian artery transection (23 Blalock-Taussig, four subclavian aortoplasty for coarctation or interrupted arch, and one division of aberrant left subclavian). Bilateral systolic brachial artery pressure (BAP) was measured by Doppler instrumentation to obtain a "BAP index": BAP1 = (operated side BAP/control side BAP). Velocity waveform tracings and bilateral forearm skin temperatures were also obtained during studies before and sequentially after operation (4 hours to 12 years). Five patients underwent exercise testing of the upper extremity. Nine patients were studied for manual preference and limb development. Before operation, mean BAP1 was 0.99. Immediately (4 to 48 hours) after operation, mean BAP1 was 0.39. Three weeks postoperatively, BAP1 was 0.62, and thereafter it remained at 0.70. All differences between preoperative, immediate postoperative and late postoperative BAP1 are significant (p less than 0.001). Exercise resulted in a significant (p less than 0.01) increase in BAP bilaterally. Forearm skin temperature was initially lower (p less than 0.01) on the operated side but approximated the control side by 1 week. Limb girth was less on the operated side (p less than 0.01), without evidence of altered manual preference. In conclusion, subclavian artery transection causes permanent reduction in BAP1. The affected limb appears to respond to increased metabolic demand by increasing limb blood flow.

A young woman presented with a tumor in the left atrium resembling a left atrial myxoma. After simple excision of the tumor the diagnosis of primary malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the heart was made. A course of radiation therapy was given. Four subsequent recurrences were treated by cardiotomy and resection of the left atrial wall. At the third, fourth, and fifth operations fulguration of the left atrial wall was performed. Subsequent chemotherapy failed to control the tumor. The patient was admitted 6 weeks after the last resection and died. Postmortem examination revealed a large recurrent tumor obstructing the left atrium with no metastases. The clinical course, cardiac catherization data, and postmortem examination are presented. Palliation was achieved by repeated resection of a radiation-resistent primary sarcoma of the heart.

The porcine heterograft has been shown to be a very satisfactory replacement for the diseased aortic valve. In certain cases, the advantage of a low thromboembolism rate without anticoagulation must be weighed against the suboptimal orifice size noted in the smallest heterografts. In using the largest replacement possible, the surgeon may encounter difficulty with closure of the aortotomy. Patch aortoplasty, as used in the 4 cases reported here, allows implantation of a larger heterograft. The technique is simple and adds little time to the operation. In selected cases, enlargement of the aortic root should result in better long-term hemodynamic performance.

A new arterial prosthesis made of polytetrafluoroethylene (OTFE) was evaluated in 10 infants with complex cyanotic congenital heart disease. All grafts used were 4 mm. in diameter and varied in length from 0.8 to 6 cm. The grafts were anastomosed to the main pulmonary artery or its bifurcation in 8 infants and to the right and left pulmonary arteries in one each. There were two early deaths, one of which was related to shunt failure. The advantages of a shunt to the main pulmonary artery are obvious, and the intraoperative procedure is facilitated with the prosthesis. Follow-up averages 9 months in the 8 survivors, and the patients have nearly doubled their preoperative weight. A shunt murmur is present in each case and the children have mild-to-moderate cyanosis at rest. Repeat aortograms in 2 patients, 8 and 10 months postoperatively, show a smooth graft without luminal narrowing. The aortic oxygen saturations were 73 per cent. The PTFE graft and/or anastomoses will not grow with the growth of the child and therefore may not accommodate growth by increased flow. This may prove to be a limiting factor in its long-term use in fants. We reserve the use of these grafts for infants with complex cyanotic defects undergoing emergency surgery or in older children in whom a conventional shunt is not possible or a previous shunt has failed.

From 1975 to 1982, 31 infants were operated upon in the first year of life for aortic coarctation and congestive heart failure. Operations performed were resection and end-to-end anastomosis (RETE) in 14, subclavian flap aortoplasty (SFA) in six, patch aortoplasty (PA) in five, and other procedures in six. Thirty of the thirty-one (97%) survived the operation. To assess the effect of operation, 26 infants were studied noninvasively with Doppler arm-to-leg pressure measurements at rest and with stress. Preoperatively, the median arm-to-leg gradient at rest was 77 mm Hg. Serial postoperative Doppler studies demonstrated progressive changes in arm-to-leg pressure gradients: 69% had residual arm-to-leg gradients that spontaneously resolved, 13% had residual gradients that persisted, 13% had progressive increase in gradient, and one child had neither early nor late gradient. Stress testing often unmasked gradients not present in the resting state. No differences were noted among the three surgical groups: RETE, SFA, and PA. From our experience, we have made four conclusions with regard to repair of coarctation of the aorta in infants. First, surgical survival is expected. Second, the effect of the operation is dynamic, with four patterns defined: (1) complete relief of coarctation, (2) transient residual coarctation, (3) persistent residual coarctation, and (4) recurrent coarctation. Third, optimal surgical therapy seems to be an eclectic approach. Fourth, physiological evaluation of coarctation in infants can be obtained by Doppler techniques in conjunction with stress testing.

Three consecutive patients with Pseudomonas endocarditis were treated by early operation with no deaths. The indications for operation were severe failure, systemic embolization, and infection refractory to antibiotics. The organism is aggressive, characterized by early invasion of the myocardium. Wide débridement of the anulus is necessary to remove any vegetations or intramyocardial abscessed wall. Because multiple valve infection is common, it is important to evaluate all four cardiac valves at the time of operation. Removing a second rim of the mitral anulus for separate culture at the time of mitral valve replacement may demonstrate the degree to which the valve resection has removed all infection. Early operation is necessary for reinfection of the prosthetic valve; however, metastatic abscess should also be considered in the face of continued signs of infection postoperatively. Patients should receive a 6 week postoperative course of antibiotics which have been shown by in vitro testing to be serum bactericidal in at least a 1:8 dilution. The operative findings of invasion of the myocardium by the organism and the surgical success in this small series have resulted in our recommending earlier operation in patients with these indications.

From September, 1978, to January, 1983, 44 cyanotic infants and children underwent a systemic-pulmonary artery shunt for the treatment of reduced pulmonary blood flow. Age ranged from 18 hours to 4 years (mean age = 0.49 years). Weight ranged from 1.7 kg to 13.2 kg (mean weight = 4.9 kg). There were 12 classic Blalock-Taussig shunts, five central polytetrafluoroethylene shunts, six interposition modified Blalock-Taussig shunts, and 21 Great Ormond Street type of modified Blalock-Taussig shunts. No direct aorta-pulmonary artery anastomoses were performed. There was one postoperative death (1/44 = 2.3%) in a 1,700 gm neonate born with pulmonary atresia and intact ventricular septum (shunt patent). Four shunts required early revision: one thrombosed central shunt, a kinked patent interposition Blalock-Taussig shunt, a small but patent Blalock-Taussig shunt, and one excessive Great Ormond Street type of Blalock-Taussig shunt. Two late deaths were probably shunt-related: one Blalock-Taussig and one central. All four types of shunts provided good palliation, but the Great Ormond Street type of Blalock-Taussig shunt is our preferred shunt because of (1) low operative risk, (2) predictable patency (100% in our series), (3) lack of distortion of pulmonary arterial anatomy, and (4) technical ease of insertion as well as takedown.

Two neonates with asplenia syndrome, subdiaphragmatic total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, and pulmonary stenosis underwent a palliative operation without cardiopulmonary bypass. With the use of a side-biting clamp, and anastomosis was created between the pulmonary venous confluence and the right atrium. (Since children with asplenia syndrome have common mixing lesions, pulmonary venous drainage to the right atrium is not physiologically detrimental.) The descending vertical vein was ligated. A systemic-pulmonary shunt was performed. Both infants were discharged from the hospital less than 1 week after the operation. Both infants subsequently died, at 4 months and at 16 months of age. At autopsy, pulmonary venous drainage was unobstructed, with a surgical orifice 86% to 90% of the aortic anulus. We conclude that, in infants with asplenia syndrome and obstructed total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage, relief of pulmonary venous obstruction can be accomplished without cardiopulmonary bypass.

Although the internal mammary artery bypass seems an ideal coronary bypass vessel, it has not usually been possible to use this vessel to bypass distal lesions in the right coronary circulation. In this experiment, the right internal mammary artery was utilized in retrograde fashion to evaluate this anatomically more suitable vessel as a bypass graft to the occluded right coronary artery in the dog. Reversal of acute myocardial ischemia was demonstrated by mapping epicardial ST-segment elevation and measuring surface pH. Preliminary long-term experiments have also demonstrated patency and perfusion of the distal right coronary artery by this method.

One hundred consecutive patients undergoing aorta-coronary bypass grafting (ACBG) alone, without ventricular venting, were prospectively studied to determine the incidence and consequence of perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI) and the clinical variables that were predictive of PMI. Incidence was determined by serial electrocardiography (ECG) 100 patients; serum CK, GOT, and LDH (100 patients). CK isoenzymes (qualitative 100 patients, quantitated 50 patients); vectorcardiography (VCG) (78 patients); and 99mtechnetium pyrophosphate scintigraphy (TcPyp) (52 patients). The incidence of PMI by ECG was 9%; an additional 8% of cases was diagnosed by enzymes alone. The incidence of diagnostic change by VCG was 19% and by scintigraphy, 25%. Using at least one changed variable of the remaining three as the reference standard, the relative sensitivity and relative specificity of given variables in the diagnosis of PMI were as follows: ECG 67% and 100%, respectively; VCG 85% and 94%; scintigraphy 92% and 97%; and serum enzymes 86% and 96%. By univariate analysis, unstable angina was the only significant predictor of PMI. The operative mortality rate was 2% and the mortality rate at 12 months was 5%. There was a significantly greater mortality rate in patients with PMI diagnosed by ECG (p less than 0.01), in patients with unstable angina pectoris before operation (p less than 0.05), and in women (p less than 0.05).

Of 581 aortic allografts implanted since 1967, 421 were analyzed for structural deterioration. This series is unique in that it includes patients from the early allograft experience. All allografts were cleanly procured, antibiotic sterilized, and either stored at 4 degrees C for up to 8 weeks or frozen to liquid nitrogen temperatures with cryopreservation to preserve the viable cusp fibroblasts. There were 25 frozen mounted aortic valves with a median time to valve failure of 12.1 years, which was not significantly different from the 12.5-year period for 114 fresh free-sewn aortic valves. The median time to valve failure was 6.6 years for 90 fresh-mounted aortic valves and 8.6 years for 192 fresh-mounted mitral valves (p = 0.05). The difference between all mounted and unmounted grafts was significant (p = 0.0001). In all groups, viable fibroblasts were present in specimens explanted up to 5 years after the operation. All specimens returned after more than 10 years were almost totally acellular. Evidence of increased collagen, suggesting that the fibroblasts survive implantation and then gradually die, was present in all specimens. This series suggests that durability of the unmounted viable allograft for aortic valve replacement is greater than for other types of tissue valves. Pre-mounted allografts for aortic or mitral valve replacement have a median survival of 8 years and are not more durable than other tissue valves.