[HSF] Endocarditis with splenic infarct

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Sun Jun 3 00:19:49 EDT 2007




Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2007;31:592-599. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2007.01.002
Copyright © 2007, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. 
Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Reconstructive surgery in active mitral valve endocarditis: feasibility, 
safety and durability
Laurent de Kerchovea,*, Jean-Louis Vanoverscheldeb, Alain Ponceleta, 
David Glineura, Jean Rubaya, Francis Zechc, Philippe Noirhommea, Gebrine 
El Khourya

a Division of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Université Catholique 
de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
b Division of Cardiology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, 
Belgium
c Division of Internal Medicine, Université Catholique de Louvain, 
Brussels, Belgium

Received 16 September 2006; received in revised form 19 December 2006; 
accepted 4 January 2007.

* Corresponding author. Address: Division of Cardiothoracic and Vascular 
Surgery, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate 10, 1200 
Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2 764 6111; fax: +32 2 764 8960. (Email: 
Laurent.DeKerchove at clin.ucl.ac.be; ldekerchove at hotmail.com).


Abstract
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

Objective: To evaluate timing for surgery and management of complex 
valve lesions in patients with active mitral valve (MV) endocarditis. 
Results are based on 13 years of experience with MV repair in active 
endocarditis. Method: Between 1993 and 2005, 81 patients were operated 
for active MV endocarditis, of which 63 (or 78%) had MV repair. For all 
patients, the median time between diagnosis and surgery was 10 days. 
Diverse surgical techniques were applied to restore MV competence. In 
59% of the patients, pericardial patches, tricuspid autograft or partial 
MV homografts were used as leaflet substitutes. In addition, prosthetic 
rings were employed in 44% of the patients. Results: The overall 
operative mortality was 17.5%. However, considering only patients in 
preoperative NYHA class I or II, the operative mortality could be 
reduced to 4.8%. NYHA class ?3, elevated age (above 70 years) and 
history of valvular were the three independent risks factors for early 
mortality in our multivariate analysis. The average follow-up time was 
60 ± 37 months. During this period, five late deaths occurred, two of 
which were cardiac-related. The overall 5- and 10-year survival rate was 
73 ± 12% and 69 ± 13%, respectively. In hospital survivors, freedom from 
cardiac death after 5 and 10 years was 93 ± 8%. Three early and five 
late MV reoperations occurred in seven patients, of them four could have 
MV re-repair. Only one endocarditis recurrence occurred after 4 months 
in a chronic haeamodialysed patient. Freedom from MV reoperation was 89 
± 10% and 72 ± 24% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Ten-year freedom 
from MV replacement and from endocarditis recurrence were 95 ± 5% and 98 
± 1%, respectively. Annular abscesses and calcified or rheumatic MV 
disease were two independent risk factors associated with reoperation in 
our multivariate analysis. During the follow-up period, all patients 
were in NYHA class I or II; 89% of patients had mitral regurgitation 
grade ?I, only 11% had grade II on transthoracic echocardiography. 
Conclusion: Using diverse and advanced techniques of MV repair, a 
reparability rate of 80% can be reached among patients with active 
endocarditis. We demonstrate that a high level of safety and excellent 
durability of MV repair can be obtained even for complex repairs.

Key Words: Mitral valve repair • Active endocarditis • Native valve 
endocarditis


1. Introduction
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

Since the early nineties, many authors have reported the excellent 
results of mitral valve (MV) repair [1–4] in acute and healed 
endocarditis. However, severity and heterogeneity of endocarditis 
lesions, multiple valves endocarditis and precarious haemodynamic status 
are all conditions that explain the relatively low rate of MV repair in 
this aetiology. In degenerative disease, reparability rate ranges from 
80 to 90% [5], whereas in endocarditis, it ranges from 35 to 50% 
[2,4,6–10] with only few exceptions [1,3,11,12]. The advantages of MV 
repair over replacement, also reported by some authors in the setting of 
endocarditis [4,7,10], promote the efforts to increase the reparability 
rate in this challenging indication.

In patients with MV infective endocarditis, indication and timing of 
surgery are typically determined by the clinical presentation of the 
disease. It is usually recommended to delay surgery until completion of 
antibiotic therapy. However, recent guidelines have been defined to 
describe situations that mandate urgent surgery. These specific cases 
are (i) the presence of heart failure due to severe MV regurgitation, 
(ii) persistent sepsis despite adequate antibiotic therapy, (iii) the 
involvement of resistant or aggressive microorganisms, (iv) locally 
uncontrolled infection, (v) septic emboli and finally (vi) large 
vegetations (>10 mm) [13].

The objective of this study was to review 13 years of our experience in 
reconstructive surgery for active MV endocarditis.


2. Material and methods
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

Between 1993 and 2005, 81 patients underwent surgery for active native 
MV endocarditis. The following study is based on 63 of these patients 
(78%) that had MV repair. Endocarditis was defined as active when (i) 
positive cultures were obtained (by preoperative haemoculture or 
intraoperative culture) or when a macroscopically infected valve was 
detected and (ii) for patients operated within 6 weeks after diagnosis 
during the antibiotic therapy [14–17].

All patients diagnosed with endocarditis were preoperatively assessed 
with transthoracic (TTE) and transoesophagial echocardiography (TEE). If 
necessary, repeated TEE were performed in order to follow the lesions 
and to support a decision for surgery.

In presence of preoperative neurologic complication, indication for 
surgery was discussed by a multidisciplinary team of neurologist, 
intensivist, cardiologist and cardiac surgeon. Patients’ age, type and 
severity of neurologic deficit and long-term functional prognosis were 
the principal factors guiding the therapeutic attitude. Early surgery 
was advised in patients with small non-haemorragic lesion and few 
neurologic deficit. In case of intracranial bleeding or massive stroke, 
surgery was delayed to avoid anticoagulation drugs during a 10–15 days 
period and to allow appropriate follow-up of the neurologic status. 
Patients in coma with poor prognosis of recovery were excluded for surgery.

2.1 Timing of surgery
During the study period, we progressively performed surgery earlier 
during the course of endocarditis (Fig. 1 ). This approach is believed 
to avoid further destruction of the valve as previously suggested by 
Dreyfus et al. [1]. In our current protocol, under appropriate 
indication, surgery was promptly performed; this implies that in some 
situations preoperative antibiotics were administered for only a few 
days prior to surgery. Following this approach, the mean and median 
times between the first and the last third of the study period were 
decreased from 18 ± 10 to 10 ± 9 days and from 17 to 6 days, 
respectively (Fig. 1). Twenty-six patients (41% of the patient 
population) were operated on during the first week of antibiotic 
therapy, 12 patients (20%) during the second week, 9 patients (14%) 
during the third week and 16 patients (25%) within the fourth to the 
sixth week. For all patients, antibiotic therapy started at diagnosis 
was completed after surgery, with a total duration of 6–8 weeks as 
recommended by current guidelines [13].


Figure 1
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Fig. 1. Mean and median length of preoperative antibiotic therapy 
(y-axis) according to the study periods (x-axis).


2.2 Patient characteristics
Preoperative patient characteristics are listed in Table 1 . Average 
patient age was 56 ± 14 years (ranging between 19 and 77 years) and the 
male:female ratio was 7:3. Pre-existing MV disease was identified for 19 
(30%) of our patients. Twelve patients (19%) underwent previous cardiac 
surgery including seven aortic valve replacements (five mechanical 
prosthesis and two bioprosthesis), three MV repairs, two CABG's and one 
atrial septal defect closure.


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Table 1 Preoperative patient characteristics

Indications for surgery were (i) severe congestive heart failure (NYHA 
class ?III) in 21 patients (32%) and cardiogenic shock in nine of them 
(14%), (ii) septic emboli in 22 patients (35%) including 10 cases (16%) 
of stroke with no intracranial bleeding, five cases (8%) of TIA's and 
three cases (4.7%) of cerebral abscesses and (iii) persistent sepsis in 
11 patients (17%). Preoperative transoesophagial echocardiography 
revealed vegetations in 51 patients (81%), mitral regurgitation (MR) 
grade ?3 in 40 patients (63.5%) and intracardiac abscesses or fistulas 
in 17 patients (27%). Forty-two patients (67%) had isolated mitral valve 
endocarditis, 20 (32%) had both mitral and aortic valve endocarditis and 
one had mitral and tricuspid valve endocarditis.

The most common microorganisms responsible for endocarditis were 
Streptococcus (for 29 patients, 46%) and Staphylococcus (for 20 
patients, 32%) species. No microorganism could be identified in five 
patients (Table 2 ).


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Table 2 Pre- and intraoperative bacteriology

2.3 Operative findings
Endocarditis lesions were equally located on either the anterior or 
posterior mitral leaflets and less frequently at the level of the 
commissures. Vegetations were the most commonly found lesions (80%). 
Other lesions such as prolapses (40%), perforation (where the defect 
respects the leaflet free edge) or destructions (where the defect 
includes the leaflet free edge) (38%) and abscesses (35%) were also 
observed. Annular abscesses that were slightly underestimated by 
preoperative echocardiography were equally located at the level of the 
anterior or posterior mitral annulus. In addition to the endocarditis 
lesions, an underlying degenerative, rheumatic or congenital MV disease 
was observed in 37 patients (59%) (Table 3 ).


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Table 3 Description of the mitral valve lesions

2.4 Operative findings and techniques
All patients were operated on by median sternotomy with cardiopulmonary 
bypass. Antegrade cold crystalloid cardioplegia was initially used (18 
patients, 28%) for the first 3 years of the study, and was then replaced 
by normothermic blood cardioplegia (45 patients, 72%).

After careful examination of the valve and the complete resection of 
infected tissues, the feasibility of MV repair was evaluated. Extensive 
destruction of a single leaflet or the presence of abscess did not 
contraindicate MV repair. However, the extensive destruction of both 
leaflets or poor quality of the remaining tissues (through 
calcification, retraction or thickening) did usually prompt MV replacement.

A list of the techniques used to repair the MV is provided in Table 4 . 
In half of the patients, several techniques had to be applied to achieve 
MV continence. Biological patches were used as a substitute for the 
leaflet defect in 37 patients (59%). Glutaraldehyde-treated autologous 
pericardium or bovine pericardium, due to increased availability, were 
the most used patches (22 patients). The tricuspid valve autograft, 
preferred for commisural reconstruction, was used in six patients. 
Posterior leaflet transposition, commonly known as the flip-over 
technique, was performed in five patients with destruction of the 
anterior leaflet free edge. A posterior MV homograft was only used once. 
Finally, in 11 patients with destruction of the basis of anterior 
leaflet by mitro-aortic abscess, mitro-aortic continuities were repaired 
with bovine pericardium (in eight patients) or anterior mitral leaflet 
from aortic homograft (in three patients).


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Table 4 Techniques used to repair the mitral valve

Prosthetic rings were implanted in 30 patients (48%) and pericardial 
bands in 6 patients (9%). In three patients (5%), infected 
calcifications of the posterior annulus were resected. Following 
decalcification, the atrio-ventricular disjunction was reconstructed 
with bovine pericardium.

Associated procedures were performed in 24 patients (38%) and were 
mostly related to concomitant aortic valve endocarditis (seven 
homografts, four AV repair, four Ross, four bioprosthesis and one 
Bentall). Nine patients, for whom infection had spread deeply through 
perivalvular tissues, bovine pericardium was used to reconstruct the 
cardiac cavities and fibrous skeleton of the heart. Eight patients had 
TV repair and four had CABG. The mean aortic cross-clamp and 
cardio-pulmonary bypass times were 130 ± 42 and 100 ± 34 min, respectively.

2.5 Follow-up data
Mean follow-up period was 59 ± 37 months (ranging between 9 and 156 
months). Survival status was obtained by telephone contact with the 
patients, their relatives or the referring physician, and from review of 
visit or hospital records. Cause of death was categorized between 
cardiac or non-cardiac. Cardiac death was defined as related to 
congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest or 
sudden death.

2.6 Statistical analysis
Data are reported as mean ± standard deviation. Survival curves were 
computed with the Kaplan–Meier method (Prism 2.0, GraphPad Software 
Inc., CA, USA). A log-rank test was used to compare curves. Twenty-four 
variables, listed in the Appendix A, were tested in uni- and 
multivariate analysis for calculating endpoints, operative mortality and 
MV reoperation. In bivariate analyses, the association of continuous 
independent variables with each outcome variable was tested with 
Student's t-test for independent samples. The association of binary 
independent variables with outcome variables was tested with 
Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel statistics. Multiple logistic regression 
modelling was then performed. Statistical as well as clinical criteria 
were used in the model: first, variables significant at the p < 0.1 were 
entered and second, clinically meaningful variables were added. A 
stepwise strategy was used. Results were considered statistically 
significant at the p ? 0.05 level. All p-values are two-tailed. The SAS 
software (release 9.1) was used in the statistical analysis (SAS 
Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).


3. Results
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

3.1 Early postoperative outcomes
Immediate postoperative transoesophagial echocardiography indicated no 
residual MR in 48 patients (76.2%) and MR grade 1 in 13 patients 
(21.6%). In only two patients (3.2%), a residual MR of grade 2 was 
accepted because of advanced age. No MV stenosis was observed at this time.

Eleven patients (17.4%) died either during their hospital stay or within 
30 days from their operation. The causes of death were congestive heart 
failure (2), sepsis (2), multiple organ failure (2), perioperative 
stroke (2), sudden death (2) and respiratory failure (1). In univariate 
analysis, criteria such as female gender (p = 0.008), older than 70 
years (p = 0.0015), history of valve disease (p = 0.07), diabetes 
mellitus (p = 0.008), renal dysfunction (plasma creatinine >2 mg/dl, p = 
0.005) and severe symptomatic heart failure (NYHA class ? III and 
cardiogenic shock, p = 0.0001) were predictive for early death. In 
multivariate analysis, only criteria such as severe symptomatic heart 
failure (NYHA class ? III and cardiogenic shock) (p = 0.009), older than 
70 years (p = 0.02), history of valve disease (p = 0.045) and female 
gender (p = 0.049) were independent risk factors. Considering severity 
of congestive heart failure, operative mortality was 4.8% (2 out of 42 
patients) in patients with preoperative NYHA class I or II, 30% (4 out 
of 12 patients) in class III and IV and 55% (5 out of 9 patients) in 
patients with congestive heart failure.

Twenty patients (31.7%) had postoperative complications. Three patients 
(4.7%) needed an early MV reoperation during the first postoperative 
week. The cause of failure of the repair was identified as suture 
dehiscence in three of them. One had dehiscence of a posterior 
quadrangular resection, another of a pericardial patch and the last one 
of a papillary muscle of a tricuspid autograft. The last two patients 
died, one from mediastinitis that was present at reoperation and the 
second from multiple organ failure. Other significant complications 
included reoperation for bleeding or tamponnade (seven cases), prolonged 
artificial ventilation (four cases), permanent pacemaker implantation 
(two cases), mediastinitis (one case), myocardial infaction (one case) 
and stroke (one case).

3.2 Long-term outcomes
Five patients died during follow-up: two from sudden cardiac death and 
three from cancer. At 5 and 10 years, overall survival was 73 ± 12% and 
69 ± 13%, respectively, and freedom from cardiac death in hospital 
survivors showed to be 93 ± 8%. (Fig. 2a and b).


Figure 2
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Fig. 2. (a) Kaplan–Meier overall actuarial survival; (b) Kaplan–Meier 
actuarial survival showing freedom from late cardiac death in hospital 
survivors; (c) Kaplan–Meier curve for freedom from MV reoperation in the 
all population and in the subgroups of patients having MV repair with or 
without patch; (d) Kaplan–Meier curve for cardiac-related event-free 
survival.


Five patients (8%) needed MV reoperation during the follow-up. One 
patient, in chronic haemodialysis, needed MV replacement following an 
endocarditis recurrence 3 months after MV repair. The four other 
patients had recurrence of MV regurgitation, which was successfully 
re-repaired at 22, 55, 71 and 103 months, respectively.

One patient required aortic valve replacement and coronary artery bypass 
graft surgery after 3 months. All patients with late reoperations had an 
uneventful postoperative course. At 5 and 10 years, freedom from MV 
reoperation was 89 ± 10% and 72 ± 24%, respectively (Fig. 2c). At 10 
years, freedom from MV replacement and endocarditis recurrence were 95 ± 
5% and 98 ± 1%, respectively. In univariate analysis, renal failure 
(need for haemodialysis, p = 0.03), calcified or rheumatic MV disease (p 
= 0.012) and MV annular abscess (p = 0.003) were significantly 
associated with MV reoperation. Only calcified or rheumatic MV disease 
(p = 0.02) and MV annular abscess (p = 0.01) were identified as 
independent risk factors in multivariate analyses. The patients having 
MV repairs using patches had a slightly higher (8% vs 13%), but not 
significant (p = 0.7), reoperation rate compared to the patients having 
repair without a patch.

During follow-up, one thromboembolic event (TIA) and one anticoagulation 
related bleeding occurred. Cardiac event-free survival – defined as 
survival without endocarditis recurrence, cardiac related death, cardiac 
reoperations, bleeding or thromboembolic events – was 81 ± 13% and 66 ± 
23% at 5 and 10 years, respectively (Fig. 2d).

At follow-up, among the 47 patients, 33 (74%) were in NYHA class I and 
14 (26%) were in class II. Among the 46 patients free from MV 
replacement, transthoracic echocardiograpy showed no or residual MR 
grade 1 in 41 patients (89%) and residual MR grade 2 in the remaining 5 
patients (11%). One patient, who died from cancer, had a pericardial 
patch perforation (at basis of anterior leaflet) with moderate 
regurgitation.


4. Discussion
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

In a multicentric study conducted in North America, Gammie et al. [14] 
recently reported a 20% and 48% feasibility rate of MV repair in active 
and healed endocarditis, respectively, with a progressive increase of 
both rates during the last decade. However, we showed that using a wide 
armamentarium of repair techniques, including a liberal use of 
biological patches (in 50% of the patients), we could realistically 
achieve a 78% feasibility rate. Similar rates have been reported by 
other groups implementing the same or slightly different techniques for 
repair [1,3,11,12]. Depending on the size and location of the lesions, 
we relied on a large variety of patch materials, such as autologous or 
bovine pericardium, tricuspid autographs, transposed posterior leaflets, 
and mitral homografts, as leaflet substitutes. The reliability of each 
of these techniques has been previously demonstrated [18–21]. In our 
experience, the use of a patch to restore leaflet defect was not 
predictive for MV reoperation, and only the presence of paravalvular 
abscesses and calcified or rheumatic MV disease was considered 
significant risk factors for MV reoperation.

In 1990, Dreyfus et al. [1], who were the first to demonstrate the 
feasibility of MV repair in active endocarditis, introduced the concept 
of early surgery to prevent further destruction of the valve. We firmly 
believe in that concept and we observe that, during the early course of 
the disease, margins of infectious lesions are clearer than later on. 
This situation facilitates the resection of the diseased area, 
preserving healthy tissues in order to increase the possibilities of 
valve repair. In this series, in which 40% of the patients were operated 
within the first week after diagnosis, the short preoperative antibiotic 
therapy (<1 week vs >1 week) was shown to have no significant impact on 
either operative mortality (p = 0.8), endocarditis recurrence (p = 1) or 
MV reoperations (p = 0.1), as has been previously observed by Jault et 
al. [17] and Balasubramanian et al. [22]. However, at the current stage 
of our research, we are unable to evaluate any specific decrease in the 
rate of occurrence of postoperative complications which could be related 
to early surgery.

The 17.4% operative mortality rate reported in this study can be 
considered as high when compared to the average rate of 10% recently 
reported in a multicentric study by Gammie et al. [14]. However, our 
reported mortality rate remains within the common range of 3–21% 
published in other unicentric studies [1–4,6–12]. The degree of 
preoperative heart failure has been shown to be an important factor 
influencing operative mortality for degenerative MV disease. The low 
operative mortality rate of 4.8% in the subgroup of NYHA class I or II 
patients is indicative of the advantage to operate on patients with 
severe regurgitation before they develop severe symptomatic heart failure.

When compared to studies which primarily include remplacement in native 
MV endocarditis, our overall survival rates (of 73% at 5 years and 69% 
at 10 years) and survival rates in hospital survivors (of 88% at 5 years 
and 84% at 10 years) are comparable to those reported by Alexiou [23] 
(79% and 61%) and Aranki [15] (87% and 74%), respectively. However, the 
low incidence of late cardiac death in our series (93% freedom from 
cardiac deaths at 10 years) can support the benefits of MV repair that 
appear during the long-term follow-up. Excellent late survival rates 
after MV repair for active or healed endocarditis have also been 
reported by Lung [12] (93% at 7 years) and Zedgi [24] (80% at 10 years). 
Such results reflect the advantages of the preservation of the left 
ventricular function associated with MV repair.

We reported in our series 89% 5-year freedom from reoperation. In 
literature, such rate varies between 84% and 100% for MV repair 
[1,2,7,10,12] and between 76% and 94% for replacement [15,16,23]. At 10 
years, this rate is reduced to 72%, which is lower [23] or equivalent 
[16,25] to the rates reported in patients with mechanical valve 
replacements in endocarditis. However, our 10-year freedom from 
reoperation remains higher than the reoperation rate obtained in 
patients with biological valve replacement [15,25]. Zedgi [24] also 
confirmed the excellent long term durability rate (91% at 10 years) of 
MV repair in acute endocarditis, which supports our results.

Our low rates of re-infection and thrombo-embolic events demonstrate the 
resistance and safety of MV repair. Prosthetic ring annuloplasty was 
never associated with high re-infection rates (even in active 
endocarditis); therefore, we advise its use when the annulus is dilated 
and to stabilize complex repairs. In addition, a pericardial band may be 
used as an alternative in the situation of severe contamination of the 
operative field by pus. Finally, our findings support the use of 
artificial chordae in PTFE Goretex as a safe technique that does not 
increase the risk of infection recurrence.

4.1 Study limitations
Our study does not include details of patients having MV replacement in 
order to focus on the techniques and results of MV repair in acute 
endocarditis. Moreover, the number of patients having replacements was 
small when compared to the number of those receiving MV repair (18 vs 63 
patients), and these patients were significantly older with higher 
severity of illness compared to those having MV repair. Those 
differences could explain the advantage of MV repairs when compared to 
MV replacements: (i) 17.4% versus 44% operative mortality and (ii) 73 ± 
12% versus 38 ± 23% 5-year overall survival. We are aware that the lack 
of comparable groups limits the conclusions of our data. However, our 
reconstructive approach has enabled us to show the results of complex MV 
repair in situations of severe endocarditis lesions.

Further studies incorporating a larger number of patients and extended 
follow-up period are necessary to assess the advantage of MV repair over 
replacement. With additional studies, we could more accurately define 
the best timing as well as the technical limits of MV repair in this 
challenging aetiology. The widespread use of reconstructive mitral 
surgery should provide in the future materials for large multicentric 
studies.


5. Conclusions
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

Diverse repair techniques are needed to overcome the heterogeneities of 
endocarditis lesions. We demonstrated that combining early surgery and 
diversity in repair techniques resulted in a reparability rate of 80%. 
Even in situations of complex repairs, excellent long-term outcomes of 
MV repair were observed. However, we also demonstrated that the risk of 
reoperation remains higher in patients with calcified or rheumatic 
disease. We suggest that patients with active endocarditis and severe MV 
regurgitation could benefit from early surgery to avoid development of 
symptomatic heart failure. Finally, we found that the completion of 
short preoperative antibiotics therapy after surgery does not affect the 
postoperative survival or endocarditis recurrence rates.


Appendix A
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

Conference discussion

Dr H. Siniawski (Berlin, Germany): I have two questions.

First of all you reported that 33% of patients received double valve 
surgery, if I understood, concomitant mitral valve surgery was required 
to aortic replacement in these 33% of patients. My question is, was it 
secondary infected mitral valve disease to primary aortic endocarditis 
or whether there were the cases of parallel infected double valves?

The second question deals with indication for surgery in your 
institution. What is your policy, especially according to mitral 
regurgitation? Do you operate with a grade 1, 2 or 3? And is an 
assessment of regurgitation important in the cases when two valves are 
involved in a destructive form of endocarditis?

Dr de Kerchove: To answer your first question: yes, some reoperated 
patients already had aortic valve endocarditis before but no mitral 
valve endocarditis. So for all patients that was the first episode of 
mitral valve endocarditis.

And to your second question: yes, for sure the mitral regurgitation is 
very important for us. In patients who present indication of surgery 
like a septic emboli or an abscess or refractory sepsis, even if the 
patient has mitral regurgitation grade 1 or 2, we indicate surgery to 
resect the vegetation which provoked the embolism, or to resect the 
abscess, and in the case of refractory sepsis to take out infected 
tissues. But in patients who do not present those symptoms and without 
any other symptoms, we indicate surgery in presence of a mitral 
regurgitation grade 3.

Dr C. Mestres (Barcelona, Spain): I have a couple of questions. Number 
one, you have not shown data on cultures of the valves. I presume that 
you did culture of the tissue that you removed from the mitral valve, 
correct?

Dr de Kerchove: Yes.

Dr Mestres: So the question is, do you think that if cultures were 
positive, should this be related to the very early problems that you had 
in some valves, number one? And number two, in these cases that you 
reoperated on because of late endocarditis, was this endocarditis a 
relapse or a recurrence?

Dr de Kerchove: To answer to your first question, I would say that, 
surprisingly, even when we operate early, we observe that the valve 
tissue is very quickly sterilized. So we have very few positive 
intraoperative cultures. Majority of the positive cultures were coming 
from preoperative blood cultures. So even after few days of antibiotics 
therapy we saw that the valve was almost sterilized and the germ didn’t 
grow on the culture.

To your second question, all patients who had endocarditis on the aortic 
valve were completely cured from their endocarditis, because it was a 
long delay between the two operations, and I would say all the 
mechanical biological valves were newly infected.

Dr Mestres: Thank you, because at least in our experience, the culture 
positive rate of explanted second inserted valves continues to be quite 
high, especially in the first 2 weeks of antibiotic therapy.

Dr N. Shikhverdiev (St. Peterburg, Russian Federation): Did you have any 
neurological complications before the operation? If yes, what was the 
surgical strategy? Did you have embolic complications into the brain 
before the operation?

Dr de Kerchove: Yes, for sure.

Dr Shikhverdiev: You operated on 22 patients with embolic complications. 
I am interested – did you have embolic complications into the brain and 
what was the surgical strategy?

Dr de Kerchove: Of course, we had embolic stroke preoperatively, and I 
didn’t give the number but it was about 10 patients, and when a patient 
has a stroke preoperatively, the guidelines recommend that if the stroke 
is very recent and is hemorrhagic, you can operate. So we can go very 
fast. It is between 48 or 72 h after the stroke. And if the clinical 
situation allowed it, that is obvious. If somebody is in a coma and we 
are not sure about the neurological outcome of the patient, we wait. But 
if it is a limited stroke, we can go before hemorrhagic complications of 
the stroke.

Dr N. Alotti (Zalaegerszeg, Hungary): My main question is, what is your 
strategy in timing the operation? We have noticed in one of your data 
that about a quarter of your patients were operated late. Second 
question. What is your strategy after the operation with anticoagulant 
therapy?

Dr. de Kerchove: As you have seen with this approach, when indication is 
present, we don’t wait too much and we operate quite early. Doing so, 
80% of the patients with active mitral valve endocarditis are operated 
during the course of the first hospitalization.

And for the second question about anticoagulant therapy, for a patient 
with prosthetic mitral ring annuloplasty, all patients have two months 
of anticoagulation, with marcoumar, and for the patient who doesn’t have 
a prosthetic ring, we give nothing.

Dr O. Alfieri (Milan Italy): This paper is introducing a very important 
change in the strategy of the treatment of endocarditis. If I understood 
well, even in patients who respond well to antibiotic therapy since the 
very beginning, you go ahead, and operate. This is an innovative concept 
that you introduce, but this is not acceptable, according to the guidelines.

Dr de Kerchove: In a patient who is responding to antibiotics but with 
severe mitral regurgitation and no other complications, the guidelines 
recommend to complete antibiotics therapy and to wait until the patient 
develops symptoms of heart failure or left ventrical dilatation. We 
think that it could be maybe better to operate before the patient 
becomes symptomatic because operative mortality is, in the present 
study, tightly correlated to the grade the preoperative NYHA functional 
class. So, the ’good responders’ with mitral regurgitation grade >2 will 
be operated during the same hospitalization.

Dr T. Folliguet (Paris, France): I have a technical question. When you 
have free edge defect on the anterior valve, I think it is very 
difficult to fix, and you mentioned three techniques, pericardial patch, 
flip-over and tricuspid transplantation. We found that sometimes when 
you do a pericardial patch, we have non good coaptation of the free 
edge, and I have seen you reoperate on three of the different 
techniques. But in your experience, what would be the best technique to 
correct someone with a large defect on the free edge, which in our hands 
is one of the most difficult problems we have?

Dr de Kerchove: To answer to your interesting question, I would prefer 
to give the words to Professor El Khoury, who is the principal 
investigator and surgeon in this study.

Dr M. Mahgoub (Zagazig, Egypt): Will you use any local disinfectant like 
glutaraldehyde or something if there is an abscess or a localized 
infection in the valve? And the second question is, the pericardium that 
you use, do you use fresh pericardium or fixed pericardium?

Dr de Kerchove: We usually use diluted Betadine to disinfect the 
operative field. We also impregnate prosthetic rings with ryfamicine 
solution before we implant it.

And about the pericardial patches, autologous pericardial patches are 
mostly treated.

Dr El Khoury (Bruxelles, Belgium): One answer to Dr Alfieri first about 
our studies in patients who had severe mitral regurgitation and do we 
have to go for surgery or not? We are now more and more taking the same 
approach as in degenerative disease. In agreement with our cardiologist, 
if the severity of the mitral regurgitation has to be surgically 
treated, we go for surgery, we don’t wait. I mean, we are not changing 
the indications, but when the indication is there for hemodynamics or 
for something else, we go for surgery. I repeat, we don’t change the 
indications; only the timing of surgery is shorter.

Now, concerning the second question about if you have a large 
destruction of the free margin, I think the best way to do it, I mean if 
it is only out on the free margin, not on the tissue, one is the 
flip-over technique, which is really very, very consistent and very 
durable, and the other technique is the implantation of Gore-Tex. Don’t 
be afraid to use it in case of endocarditis because you already remove 
largely the infected tissues and the antibiotics continued during 
postoperative period will take care of what we leave as microbes behind us.

Dr J. Pomar (Barcelona, Spain): One question is, and a short answer, how 
do you repair the tricuspid when you remove the posterior leaflet? Do 
you just make a bicuspid valve or you repair it and have another 
extension patch there or do you do something else?

Dr de Kerchove: It can be repaired using plication. Professor El Khoury 
what would you answer to this question?

Dr Pomar: Did you hear the question, Gebrine? How do you repair the 
tricuspid when you remove the posterior leaflet to be used as a graft on 
the other side?

Dr El Khoury: We have two situations. When we have enough tissue on the 
tricuspid valve left, I like to do a sliding plasty, slide the anterior 
towards the septal. Now, if we don’t have enough tissue, I put a small 
piece of pericardial patch with Gore-Tex suspension of the free margin.

Dr Pomar: My short comment was the last conclusion. Officially you 
should not say that unless you have a control group. You cannot say you 
do not impair that.


Appendix B
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References

(List of variables tested in uni- and multivariate analysis)

Age >70 years, gender, history of valve disease, previous heart surgery, 
multiple valves endocarditis, diabetes mellitus, impaired renal function 
(plasma creatinine >2 mg/dl), the need for haemodialysis, septic emboli, 
severe congestive heart failure (NYHA ?3 including cardiogenic shock), 
persistent sepsis, MR grade ?3, Staphycoccus aureus endocarditis, <1 
week of preoperative antibiotics therapy, rheumatic or calcified 
underlying MV disease, repair of anterior MV leaflet, presence of MV 
abscess, MV repair using patch, deep infection spreading, absence of 
annuloplasty, associated procedure, Aortic cross clamp time>120, 
postoperative residual MR grade 2, early MV reoperation.


Footnotes

\#9734; Presented at the joint 20th Annual Meeting of the European 
Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery and the 14th Annual Meeting of 
the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Stockholm, Sweden, September 
10–13, 2006.


References
Top
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Material and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B
References


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erdinç naseri wrote:
> Hal,
> can you please elaborate on the choice of the repair versus replacement regarding the follwing parameters:1.Location of the vegetation:annular versus leaflet
> 2.Extense of the involvement:how many scallops,single leaflet versus bileaflet
> 3.Etiologic microrganism
> 4.Size of the vegetation
> 5.Peripheral embolization of the septic material
> 6.whatever else you consider in th e choice of surgical treatment.
> erdinc
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