Thirty years experience with heart valve surgery: isolated aortic valve replacement.
BACKGROUND
Thirty years have elapsed since the commencement of open-heart surgery in South Australia. A retrospective study was performed to evaluate mortality and complication rates and to identify factors associated with poor outcomes in all patients who underwent prosthetic aortic valve replacement during this period.


METHODS
Questionnaires and personal contact have been used to generate a combined database of pre-operative and post-operative information and long-term follow-up on 1322 patients who underwent isolated prosthetic aortic valve replacement at the Cardio-Thoracic Surgical Unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital between 1963 and 1992.


RESULTS
Complete survival follow-up data were obtained for 94% (1241) of the patients. The Bjork-Shiley valve was used in 66% (875) of the patients, a Starr-Edwards prosthesis in 31% (412), a St Jude prosthesis in 2% (26), and only 0.7% (9) bioprosthetic valves were inserted. The hospital mortality rate for the 30-year period was 2.9%. Progressively older and less fit patients have undergone surgery in recent years. The long-term survival of patients with aortic stenosis and aortic incompetence was not significantly different. Long-term survival was significantly shorter for patients with higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classifications, and for patients in pre-operative atrial fibrillation. Pre-operative dyspnoea was significantly improved following aortic valve replacement. The rates of postoperative haemorrhagic and embolic complications were low by comparison with other published series.


CONCLUSIONS
Aortic valve replacement can be performed with low hospital mortality and complication rates, and significant symptomatic improvement can be expected. Aortic valve recipients have a favourable prognostic outcome compared with an age- and sex-matched population, and risk factors that determine long-term survival can be identified pre-operatively.
Bessell
J R
JR
Cardio-Thoracic Surgical Unit, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia.
Gower
G
G
Craddock
D R
DR
Stubberfield
J
J
Maddern
G J
GJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000601:surgery*; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000601:surgery*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology; D001705:Bioprosthesis; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D004617:Embolism / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis / Q000401:mortality*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012086:Reoperation; D015996:Survival Rate