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We reviewed our experience with 43 consecutive patients who underwent operations for postinfarction ventricular septal defect to determine optimal time for operative intervention, to identify factors responsible for failure of operative treatment, and to determine long-term survival rates. Patients were referred for operation after expectant medical management had failed or after 6 weeks electively. The operative mortality rate was 42% and ranged from 90% for those who required operation within 1 day of 11% for those underwent surgery after 1 month. In a multivariate discriminant analysis of preoperative variables, we found that inferior infarction with perforation (P less than 0.02) and preoperative multisystem failure (evidenced by abnormal mental status, P less than 0.02) were the major factors correlating with high operative risk. Early operation per se did not affect operative mortality rates. Technical problems with early operation were not a source of major morbidity and mortality. Actuarial long-term survival was good, and 88.5% of survivors were alive 5 years after surgery. Because preoperative multisystem failure is often progressive, we recommend immediate operation for all patients with postinfarction ventricular septal defect unless no deterioration is present. Moreover, because of the high risk of those patients with inferior infarction and perforation, we recommended immediate surgery for this group regardless of symptomatic status.

In a review of 176 patients who died after either cardiac or cardiopulmonary transplantation, 15 cases of pancreatitis were identified. The diagnosis was clinically inapparent in 11 of the 15 cases of pancreatitis. A high index of suspicion should therefore be maintained when these patients are cared for. A variety of factors may have contributed to the occurrence of pancreatitis in these patients. These include infection, steroids, azathioprine, low-flow states, extracorporeal circulation, vasopressors, renal failure, and rejection.

A cohort of 282 patients who underwent mitral valve replacement with a xenograft bioprosthesis was strictly segregated according to etiology of mitral dysfunction and analyzed regarding the impact of arteriographic coronary artery disease (CAD) and concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) on operative risk, functional result, and survival. CAD was present in 21% of the 122 patients with predominant mitral stenosis (MS) and 59% of the 155 patients with mitral regurgitation (MR); moreover, discordance between the presence of angina and anatomic CAD was found in 27% (33 of 122) of the MS subgroup and 36% (56 of 155) of the MR subgroup. Etiology of the valvular dysfunction was rheumatic in 148 patients, myxomatous degeneration in 83, and ischemic in 32. Within these subgroups, 41 patients (27%), 40 patients (48%), and 32 patients (100%), respectively, had CAD. Of those patients with CAD, 85% of the rheumatic subgroup, 90% of the degenerative subgroup, and 81% of the ischemic subgroup underwent concomitant CABG at the time of valve replacement. Within each subgroup no statistically significant (P greater than 0.05) differences in operative mortality rate, perioperative myocardial infarction rate, incidence of late angina or late infarction, or late actuarial survival were evident when compared on the basis of CAD, and/or CABG, with one exception. The exception was the 10% incidence of perioperative myocardial infarction in the rheumatic subgrohp with coronary disease versus 2% in the rheumatic subgroup without coronary disease (P = 0.05). Within the time constraints of this study (mean follow-up = 2.3 years; maximum follow-up = 5.9 years), these results support simultaneous MVR and CABG when hemodynamically appreciable CAD is found. Moreover, the overall 43% incidence of arteriographic CAD warrants routine coronary angiography in most adults undergoing preoperative catheterization for mitral valvular disease.

Between January 1, 1977, and September 15, 1978, 39 cardiac transplants were performed on 38 patients. Twenty donor hearts were removed at Stanford University Hospital, and 19 donor hearts were removed at distant hospitals. The characteristics of recipients and donors in both groups were similar. The only significant difference between donor hearts was the mean ischemia time (154 +/- 30 minutes in distant hearts and 52 +/- 12 minutes in local hearts, P less than 0.001). As of February 1, 1979, the total mortality rate was 32% for the distant heart donors and 40% for the local heart donors. No difference between the two groups was present in immediate myocardial function, the need for postoperative inotropic support, the mortality rate within the first 90 days after operation, the mean maximum serum enzyme levels, the occurrence of rejection or infection, and the histological appearance of the hearts, both early and late. The results of cardiac transplantation when hearts are removed at distant hospitals are entirely comparable to the results with hearts removed on site with a minimum ishchemic time. Distant heart procurement provides an expanded donor pool for potential cardiac recipients.