Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm: twenty-two years of experience with long-term results.
METHODS
1. All patients had preoperative investigations including coronary angiography and left ventriculography. 2. Clinical symptoms, functional outcome and survival rate were analyzed from medical records, patient's follow-up visits, and communications from the referring physicians. 3. All survivors were assessed for clinical functional status and survival rate at the most recent follow-up visits.


METHODS
long-term postoperative survival rate and the improvement of clinical outcomes.


RESULTS
Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm alone was performed in 9 patients (19.15%). Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm combined with coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 38 patients (80.85%). There was only one death (2.13%) in this study. There was a significant increase in the postoperative mean ejection fraction (EF) of the left ventricle (LV) of 16.83+/-4.93% (p < 0.01) when compared to the preoperative mean EF of the LV. Long-term follow-up of linear repair of the left ventricular aneurysm at a mean of 12.96 years was carried out. 78.13% of patients clinically improved according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class and Kaplan-Meier's method long-term survival rate of 66.61%.


CONCLUSIONS
Left ventricular aneurysm was best managed by surgical repair with improvement in quality of life.
Surakiatchanukul
S
S
Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vajira Hospital, 681 Samsen Road, Bangkok 10300, Thailand.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging; D006322:Heart Aneurysm / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology