Valve prostheses have played an important part in the past two decades in the management of patients with valvular heart disease. However, many of the devices used in valve replacement have introduced new clinical problems. This paper deals with some of the problems associated with valve replacement, including one not previously emphasized--valve prosthesis-patient mismatch, which may cause obs...

PURPOSE We evaluated medium-term results of the left-sided maze procedure using cryoablation in patients with valvular heart disease. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 111 patients with valvular heart disease who underwent the cryosurgical left-sided maze procedure. The mean follow-up period was 36.8 ± 24.9 months, and the mean duration of atrial fibrillation was 5.6 ± 6.0 years. The prima...

BACKGROUND Percutaneous aortic valve replacement represents an endovascular alternative to conventional open heart surgery without the need for sternotomy, aortotomy, or cardiopulmonary bypass. METHODS AND RESULTS Transcatheter implantation of a balloon-expandable stent valve using a femoral arterial approach was attempted in 50 symptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis in whom there w...

Aortic stenosis is 1 of the most common heart valve diseases among adults. When symptoms develop, prognosis is poor, and current guidelines recommend prompt aortic valve replacement. Depending of the severity of the aortic stenosis and the presence of concomitant heart disease and medical comorbidities, stress testing represents a reasonable strategy to help better risk stratify asymptomatic pa...

Abstract The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association practice guidelines suggest bioprosthetic aortic and mitral valve replacement is a reasonable option for patients older than 65 years selected younger according to patients’ preference. However, routine use valves in remains controversial. Patients prevalence avoid anticoagulation, decreasing operative risks reoperations, th...

We attempted to investigate cardioprotection of electroacupuncture (EA) for enhanced recovery after surgery on patients undergoing heart valve replacement with cardiopulmonary bypass. Forty-four patients with acquired heart valve replacement were randomly allocated to the EA group or the control group. Patients in the EA group received EA stimulus at bilateral Neiguan (PC6), Ximen (PC4), Shenti...

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is a frequent complication of end-stage heart failure. Historically, these patients were either managed medically or with mitral valve replacement, both associated with poor outcomes. Mitral valve repair via an 'undersized' annuloplasty repair is safe and effectively corrects MR in heart-failure patients. All of the observed changes contribute to reverse remodeling and...

The requirement of varying doses of warfarin for different individuals can be explained by environmental and genetic factors. We evaluated the frequency of vitamin K epoxide reductase complex subunit 1 (VKORC1) and cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) variants together with patientdemographic characteristics and investigated their association with warfarin dose requirement with the ob...

Valve surgery is very different from coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Over the natural history of valvular heart disease (VHD), the physiologic characteristics change markedly and, in the operating room, physiologic and hemodynamic conditions are quite variable and are readily influenced by anesthetic interventions. For some types of valve lesions it can be relatively difficult to predic...