A cost comparison of heart transplantation versus alternative operations for cardiomyopathy

Early Outcomes of Multivisceral Transplant Using Hepatitis C-Positive Donors

BACKGROUND

In the era of direct-acting antiviral therapies, hepatitis C-positive organs offer a strategy to expand the donor pool. Heart failure patients with concomitant renal insufficiency benefit from combined heart/kidney transplant. In 2017, we began utilizing organs from hepatitis C donors for heart/kidney transplants.

METHODS

Characteristics and outcomes of heart/kidney transplants were collected at our institution from 2012 through 2019. We determined patient cohorts by donor hepatitis C antibody status, antibody positive (HCV+) vs antibody negative (HCV-). Outcomes of interest include survival, postoperative allograft function, and waitlist time. Summary and descriptive statistics, as well as survival analyses, were performed.

RESULTS

Thirty-nine patients underwent heart/kidney transplantation from 2012-2019. Twelve patients received HCV+ organs, and 27 patients received HCV- organs with minimal differences in donor and recipient cohort characteristics. Recipients who consented to receive HCV+ organs had a shorter median waitlist time. HCV+ and HCV- groups had similar perioperative and early postoperative cardiac function and similar rates of delayed renal graft function. HCV+ recipients demonstrated higher creatinine levels at 3 months posttransplant compared with HCV- recipients, but by 1-year post-transplant, creatinine levels in both groups were similar. The groups had similar 30-day and 1-year survival.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is a single-center series of heart/kidney transplant using HCV+ donors. When the potential increased risk of early postoperative renal dysfunction is balanced against similar survival and decreased waitlist time, the results suggest that HCV+ donors are an important source of transplantable organs for heart/kidney transplantation.

Cost analysis of 163 consecutive heart transplant operationsin an Indian setting

Objectives

Heart transplantation has become an established procedure in India with increasing numbers being done annually. The majority of these patients are very sick with a history of multiple hospital admissions. The economic burden of such therapy is substantial and the costs are borne by the patients with very little insurance coverage. The objective of this study was to estimate the following:The average cost of a heart transplant procedure in a "real-world setting" in a private healthcare facility in India, with varying patient risk profiles.Identify the factors contributing to the wide variations in cost seen in practice.Finally, based on data thus collected, can some kind of estimation be made about the expected cost in a given patient before the operation is done?

Methods

The cost incurred by the hospital in doing 168 heart transplants during a 3-year period was analyzed. Costs were divided into direct and indirect costs. The direct costs consisted of medical consumables, laboratory investigations, radiology, costs involved in organ harvest and transport, and diet. Direct cost was 40 % of the total cost of the procedure and was used as a surrogate for total costing estimates.

Results

There was a wide variation in direct costs almost tenfold, ranging from INR 240,882 to 2403193 with a mean of 603755.The cost was affected by length of stay in the hospital, whether a patient survived or died and whether the patient died within 7 days of surgery or later. It was also affected by patient-specific factors like the INTERMACS status and preoperative creatinine levels. The average cost of the entire transplant procedure was INR 1459000.

Conclusion

There is a wide variation in the cost incurred by the hospital in doing transplants dictated to a large extent by patient risk profiles. A "One package fits all model" is unrealistic. The data pertains to the cost to the hospital and not the hospital bill and is therefore relevant to any health care facility, public or private. This study provides a framework for Governmental and private insurance agencies to fix the reimbursement rates.

Cost and Factors Associated With the Hospitalization of Patients Undergoing Heart Transplantation

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to describe the cost and factors associated with the hospitalization of patients undergoing heart transplantation.

METHODS

A cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach developed at an important heart transplant center in southern Brazil. Twenty patients who had undergone transplantation during the period 2007 to 2016 were included in the study. Central tendency measures and values presented as mean ± SD or median and quartiles were calculated. Multiple linear regression was performed to verify the variables that interfered with the cost.

RESULTS

The cost of hospitalization of patients undergoing heart transplantation was $522,997.26 in Brazilian reals ($220,002.58 in US dollars). The Brazilian public health system was responsible for paying the hospital bill of all patients. Female sex, patients up to 40 years of age, and length of stay in the hospital units were variables that were related to the highest values for the hospital service. Clinical complications of the patients during the hospitalization period were also factors that were related to the greater length of stay in the hospitalization units, reflecting higher expenses for the health institution.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for health managers to implement strategies that will minimize complications, such as health care-related infections, that can be prevented during hospitalization and to stimulate the allocation of resources in order to improve care and reduce hospital expenses.

Heart Transplantation

Although the number of available donor hearts severely limits the epidemiologic impact of heart transplantation on patients with heart failure, patients with end-stage heart failure unresponsive to medical management currently have no other viable alternatives. Destination therapy with a ventricular assist device is the closest toward approaching clinical reality but has been plagued with problems of infection and stroke. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent developments in the field that may broaden the clinical impact of heart transplantation. For example, novel methods of cardiac preservation are being designed to safely evaluate and utilize “extended criteria” donors. Surgical techniques and medical management have reduced the incidence of postoperative right heart failure, and immunosuppressive regimens promise to limit chronic graft vascular disease.

Heart transplantation versus continuous-flow left ventricular assist device: comprehensive cost at 1 year

BACKGROUND

With health care reform firmly on the horizon, it is critical to understand the costs associated with new technologies such as continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) compared with well established treatments such as heart transplantation (HT). Scarce data exist describing the costs of these 2 therapies after 1 year of support.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The study population consisted of 20 consecutive subjects who underwent implantation of a CF-LVAD and 20 consecutive subjects who underwent HT and survived ≥1 year. Comprehensive cost calculation included all direct and indirect costs from day of operation through 365 days and were inflation adjusted to 2010 US dollars. Hospital charges were converted to costs with the use of hospital-specific cost-to-charge ratios and were analyzed by time segment as well as cost center. The total 1-year cost was higher in the CF-LVAD group, although this difference did not reach statistical significance ($369,519 [interquartile range [IQR] $321,020-$520,395] vs $329,648 [IQR $278,924-$395,456]; P = .242). In both groups, the index admission constituted >50% of the total 1-year cost and the major drivers of expense by cost center were organ/device acquisition, room and board, and professional fees.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients surviving to 1 year on CF-LVAD support accrued costs similar to those of HT recipients; however, the total cost, at more than one-third of a million dollars, remains high. Reduction in the postoperative length of stay offers an avenue for significant cost savings.

Economic burden of functional and organic mitral valve regurgitation

BACKGROUND

Very little is known about the costs of mitral regurgitation (MR) in Europe.

AIM

To evaluate the cost of MR from a French National Payer perspective, based on annual costs of surgical and non-surgical patients.

METHODS

A 12-month retrospective population-based analysis of patient demographics, outcomes and acute hospital and post-discharge resource utilizations, extracted from the 2009 French Medical Information System.

RESULTS

A total of 19,868 patients with MR were identified. Surgical group (n=4099): index hospitalization length of stay (LOS), 17±14.7 days; patients discharged to rehabilitation, 72% (LOS 23±16 days); 12-month rehospitalization rate, 25%; total cost per surgical patient, €24,871±13,940 (ranging from €21,970±11,787 for mitral valve repair [n=2567, 62.6%] to €29,732±15,796 for mitral valve replacement). Non-surgical group (n=15,769): number of hospitalizations over 12 months, 3.1±1.5 (LOS 23.5±20.4 days); admitted to rehabilitation, 24% (LOS 38.8±37.6 days); total cost per patient, €12,177±10,913 (varying between €9957±9080 and €13,538±11,692 for those without and with heart failure [HF], respectively). The total observed cost for 19,868 MR patients over 12 months was €292.8 million: surgical group, €100.8 million; medical group €192.0 million. Patients with MR and HF who were managed medically consumed 45% (€132.3 million) of the overall annual cost of MR.

CONCLUSION

The costs of care associated with MR are highly heterogeneous. There are significant differences in costs and resources used between the surgical and medical MR subgroups, with further differences depending on type of surgery and presence of HF.

What are the costs of heart failure?

Heart failure , a syndrome associated with increasing prevalence, high mortality, and frequent hospital admissions, imposes a significant economic burden on western healthcare systems that is expected to further increase in the future due to the ageing population. Hospitalizations are responsible for the largest part of treatment costs and, thus, the main target for strategies aiming at cost reduction. Current literature suggests that evidence-based therapy with drugs, devices, and modern disease management programmes improves clinical outcomes of the large population of heart failure patients in a largely cost-effective manner. However, comprehensive knowledge about the cost of treatment is important to guide clinicians in the responsible allocation of today's limited health-care resources. This review provides information about the total cost of heart failure and the contribution of different treatment components to the overall costs.

Predicting the graft survival for heart-lung transplantation patients: an integrated data mining methodology

BACKGROUND

Predicting the survival of heart-lung transplant patients has the potential to play a critical role in understanding and improving the matching procedure between the recipient and graft. Although voluminous data related to the transplantation procedures is being collected and stored, only a small subset of the predictive factors has been used in modeling heart-lung transplantation outcomes. The previous studies have mainly focused on applying statistical techniques to a small set of factors selected by the domain-experts in order to reveal the simple linear relationships between the factors and survival. The collection of methods known as 'data mining' offers significant advantages over conventional statistical techniques in dealing with the latter's limitations such as normality assumption of observations, independence of observations from each other, and linearity of the relationship between the observations and the output measure(s). There are statistical methods that overcome these limitations. Yet, they are computationally more expensive and do not provide fast and flexible solutions as do data mining techniques in large datasets.

PURPOSE

The main objective of this study is to improve the prediction of outcomes following combined heart-lung transplantation by proposing an integrated data-mining methodology.

METHODS

A large and feature-rich dataset (16,604 cases with 283 variables) is used to (1) develop machine learning based predictive models and (2) extract the most important predictive factors. Then, using three different variable selection methods, namely, (i) machine learning methods driven variables-using decision trees, neural networks, logistic regression, (ii) the literature review-based expert-defined variables, and (iii) common sense-based interaction variables, a consolidated set of factors is generated and used to develop Cox regression models for heart-lung graft survival.

RESULTS

The predictive models' performance in terms of 10-fold cross-validation accuracy rates for two multi-imputed datasets ranged from 79% to 86% for neural networks, from 78% to 86% for logistic regression, and from 71% to 79% for decision trees. The results indicate that the proposed integrated data mining methodology using Cox hazard models better predicted the graft survival with different variables than the conventional approaches commonly used in the literature. This result is validated by the comparison of the corresponding Gains charts for our proposed methodology and the literature review based Cox results, and by the comparison of Akaike information criteria (AIC) values received from each.

CONCLUSIONS

Data mining-based methodology proposed in this study reveals that there are undiscovered relationships (i.e. interactions of the existing variables) among the survival-related variables, which helps better predict the survival of the heart-lung transplants. It also brings a different set of variables into the scene to be evaluated by the domain-experts and be considered prior to the organ transplantation.

Acute hemodynamic and functional effects of surgical ventricular restoration and heart transplantation in patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy

OBJECTIVES

Peak oxygen uptake (VO(2)) and ventilatory efficiency have prognostic implications in the population with congestive heart failure. This study evaluated quality-of-life functional capacity after the 2 treatment strategies of surgical ventricular restoration and transplantation for severe left ventricular dysfunction of ischemic cause.

METHODS

The 75-patient study population (between 2004 and 2006) with severe heart failure included 35 patients undergoing surgical ventricular restoration (mean age, 62.6 +/- 8.7 years), sometimes together with coronary artery bypass grafting or mitral surgery, and 40 cardiac transplant recipients (mean age, 55.6 +/- 7.7 years). Preoperative and 6-month postoperative function (peak VO(2), the anaerobic threshold, and the slope of minute ventilation/carbon dioxide uptake), cardiac catheterization parameters (left and right), and hospital and early outcomes were evaluated.

RESULTS

The 2 groups had comparable baseline functional impairment and experienced similar hospital stay and early outcomes. They also showed similar improvements in left ventricular volume indexes and hemodynamic parameters and sustained significant improvements of median VO(2), anaerobic threshold, and minute ventilation/carbon dioxide uptake values.

CONCLUSIONS

Both surgical strategies resulted in a significant and comparable improvement of functional capacity at the 6-month evaluation. These early studies must be repeated to determine the long-term benefits of surgical ventricular restoration because maximal VO(2) and ventilatory efficiency lose their prognostic survival role after transplantation.

New strategies for surgical management of ischemic cardiomyopathy

Ischemic cardiomyopathy affects an estimated 3 million people in the USA and is the most common cause of heart failure. Traditional operations have included heart transplantation, myocardial revascularization, mitral valve repair, left ventricular reconstruction, first-generation left ventricular assist devices and cardiac resynchronization therapy. These operations have become safer in recent times, due to improved technologies. Current technologies and surgical approaches can benefit a significant number of patients. However, there remains a large group of patients in whom traditional approaches can not be offered. Newer generation ventricular assist devices, passive ventricular restraint devices and cellular-based therapies (including skeletal- and bone marrow-derived stem cells) have the potential to be more universal in their applications. Ongoing investigations with each of these modalities will allow surgeons to offer treatment to patients who are not considered surgical candidates at this time.

Coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with left ventricular dysfunction

BACKGROUND

Coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) remains a challenge for patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the result of CABG in patients with LV dysfunction.

METHODS

Medical records of 1,847 patients who underwent primary, isolated CABG at Taipei Veterans General Hospital from January 1, 1991 to December 31, 2002, were reviewed. The mortality rate associated with clinical and operative variables was compared between patients with LV ejection fraction (LVEF) > or = 35% and patients with LVEF < 35%.

RESULTS

Patients with LVEF < 35% had more episodes of myocardial infarction (57.5% vs 28.9%, p < 0.001) and history of congestive heart failure (18.1% vs 3.2%, p < 0.001), higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, and higher angina class. Longer cardiopulmonary bypass time (147 +/- 44 minutes vs 137 +/- 40 minutes, p < 0.001) but fewer left internal mammary artery (LIMA) grafts (46.8% vs 65.7%, p < 0.001) were used in patients with LVEF < 35%. Patients with LVEF < 35% had significantly higher hospital mortality (6.6% vs 2.2%, p < 0.001), higher major morbidity (23.3% vs 16.1%, p < 0.01), and longer hospital stay (25 +/- 23 days vs 21 +/- 16 days, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Although patients with LV dysfunction had higher mortality and morbidity, CABG could be done in these high-risk patients with acceptable results.

Análisis del coste del trasplante cardíaco en un hospital español

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Heart transplant requires a heavy use of high cost resources. Economic data related to this procedure had not been specifically addressed and there are very few publications which analyze this topic. The aim of this study was to analyze the costs related to heart transplant in a series of patients from a single institution.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

Data from all patients included in the Hospital Clínic heart transplant programme in which a cardiac transplant was effectively performed between 1999 and 2000 were analyzed, including one year of follow-up. Patients who died within this first year were also included. Organ procurement costs were excluded. Cost analysis was performed by micro-costing techniques.

RESULTS

A total of 21 patients undergoing a heart transplant were included. One year survival rate was 76%. Mean (standard deviation) of total cost (procedure costs + one year follow-up cost) was 59,349 (18,881) euros (range: 29,380-113,470 euros). Procedure mean cost was 41,724 (17,584) euros (70% of total costs) and one year follow up mean cost was 17,625 (10,096) euros (30% of total costs) per patient. When the initial episode (heart transplant procedure) was analyzed, main cost drivers were personnel costs euros 59% of all costs; mean: 24,795 (7,633) euros and treatment costs -20% of all costs; mean: 8,386 (7,250) euros.

CONCLUSIONS

Costs of heart transplant in Barcelona (Spain) are similar to those published for other European Union countries, and well below the costs related to the procedure in the United States.

Molecular signature analysis: the potential of gene-expression analysis in cardiomyopathy

Despite the expanding knowledge base of the molecular and cellular pathophysiology and management of cardiomyopathy, it still remains difficult to accurately distinguish between patients who will someday develop circulatory collapse and require cardiac transplantation from those with excellent long-term prognosis. Of equal importance, current medical practice does not include strategies to tailor therapies to patients most likely to benefit, while at the same time seeking predictors of poor or adverse responsiveness. Gene-expression analysis using microarray technology, by providing a phenotypic resolution not possible with standard clinical criteria, has enormous potential to provide better information regarding prognosis and response to therapy in heart-failure patients. Emerging data demonstrate that a molecular signature can accurately identify etiology in cardiomyopathy, supporting ongoing efforts to identify expression profiling-based biomarkers, although microarray research in cardiomyopathy is still in its earliest stages. The ultimate potential application of transcriptome-based molecular signature analysis is individualization of the management of heart-failure patients, whereby a patient with a newly diagnosed cardiomyopathy could, through molecular signature analysis, be offered an accurate assessment of prognosis, and how individualized medical therapy could affect his or her outcome.

Surgical ventricular restoration and other surgical approaches to heart failure

Historically, few patients with ischemic congestive heart failure (CHF) have been considered for cardiac surgical intervention unless there was an obvious need for coronary revascularization or valve repair. New surgical procedures and non-mechanical assist devices are being used and tested in patients with end-stage CHF. We report on The Ohio State University Medical Center's early involvement in the international and multi-institutional Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure (STICH) trial, which is evaluating the value of coronary artery bypass in patients with ischemic CHF as compared to medical therapies alone, and whether surgical ventricular restoration (SVR) offers additional benefit to patients with dilated hearts undergoing revascularization. Beyond standard coronary revascularization and SVR, new surgically deployed devices that attempt to augment ventricular performance by direct restraint of left ventricular dilatation or by reducing ventricular wall stress through altering ventricular shape are reviewed. The growing clinical and experimental experience with cellular cardiomyoplasty (in particular, autologous skeletal myoblast and adult-derived stem transplantation) also is reviewed. This review is intended to express the institutional insights of the authors, who have been involved in clinical trials and basic science research in each of these areas.

Procuring Organ Donors as a Health Investment: How Much Should We Be Willing to Spend?

BACKGROUND

This paper examines the benefits and costs that accrue when a cadaveric organ donor is procured. We estimate the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) for donor procurement. Our objective was not only to see whether organ procurement is a "good" health investment, but also to clarify how much it is worth spending to obtain additional donors.

METHODS

We calculated the average number of kidney, heart, and liver transplants that a typical cadaveric donor generates. Relying primarily on reviewing the published literature, we estimated for each organ type the average number of QALYs that transplants add and the average medical costs they generate. We multiplied per organ benefits and costs by the number of organs from the typical donor, and summed the results to calculate the cost per QALY from procuring an additional donor. We conducted extensive sensitivity analyses of the assumptions.

RESULTS

Our central estimate indicates that the typical donor generates about 13 QALYs at an added medical cost of about $214,000, a cost of approximately $16,000 per QALY. Our high estimate is approximately $57,000.

CONCLUSIONS

The implications of these findings depend upon how we choose to value QALYs. Most analysts agree that a figure of $100,000 is reasonable. At this value, the benefit obtained from one added donor would be $1.3 million (13 x $100,000) while the medical costs would be $214,000. The implication is that we should be willing to spend up to $1,086,000 ($1.3 million - $214,000) to obtain one more donor.

Nontransplant surgical options for congestive heart failure

Although advanced heart failure has been considered the main indication for heart transplantation, the increasing number of candidates and shortage of organs for transplantation, with accumulating waiting lists, has originated another look into more conventional surgery, previously considered of prohibitive risk. In fact, many cases are a result of anatomic lesions that can be corrected by conventional surgery, and in the past decade many surgical groups have obtained good and even excellent results in the treatment of aortic stenosis with low output, and in aortic and mitral regurgitation with severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Also, ischemic and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy have been successfully treated by several types of LV remodeling surgery, with or without coronary grafting. Many of these procedures achieved excellent operative, medium-, and long-term results and survival, which match well those observed with cardiac transplantation, most often with advantages in the quality of life and, not unimportantly, in financial costs. For operated patients, especially those with ischemic cardiomyopathy, close follow-up for cardiac failure is extremely important in order to detect the right moment for heart transplantation, if it becomes necessary.

Follow-up after colorectal cancer surgery

Although most institutions offer some kind of follow-up to patients operated on for colorectal cancer, its value with respect to prolonged survival has been challenged. However, improved results of liver surgery and chemotherapy make it reasonable to assume that a follow-up programme leading to detection of more asymptomatic recurrences would result in improved survival. Liver metastases and extramural local recurrences are the most common secondary lesions and 5-year survival rates of about 30% are reported after radical resection. From these observations a survival benefit could be expected when follow-up is directed to these forms of recurrence. From six randomized studies, six comparative cohort studies and four meta-analyses it can be concluded that an intensive follow-up programme results in more recurrences being resected for cure and about a 10% higher 5-year survival rate compared with less intensive or no follow-up. However, the differences in the follow-up protocols make it difficult to conclude how a follow-up programme should be designed. Liver imaging and carcinoembryonic antigen assay should probably be included, while the yield of frequent colonoscopies is small. A follow-up regimen based on these principles is suggested. Future studies should focus on which tests are the most cost-effective for follow-up after colorectal cancer resection.

Clinical Trials in the Surgical Management of Congestive Heart Failure: Surgical Ventricular Restoration and Autologous Skeletal Myoblast and Stem Cell Cardiomyoplasty

Despite continued advances in medical and surgical approaches for patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure (CHF) remains a growing cause of morbidity and mortality. Historically, surgical options for end-stage CHF have been limited. However, there are several surgical therapies now under clinical investigation that appear promising in the effort to reverse or restore the remodeled left ventricle. This review will focus on early but current clinical studies examining surgical ventricular restoration and autologous skeletal myoblast and stem cell transplantation. Although these emerging therapeutic options remain in the early stages of study and development, they hold promise in providing options to those patients with end-stage CHF.

Effects of passive cardiac containment on left ventricular structure and function: verification by volume and flow measurements

BACKGROUND

The cardiac support device (CSD, Acorn) is a compliant, textile-mesh graft placed around the ventricles to prevent further dilatation and to improve function in congestive heart failure. The aim of this study was to verify post-operative changes in left ventricular volumes, ejection fraction, blood flow, and myocardial mass.

METHODS

Fourteen patients underwent contrast-enhanced, electrocardiography-triggered electron-beam computerized tomography before and 6 to 9 months after CSD implantation. We measured volume and flow using the slice-summation method and the indicator-dilution technique.

RESULTS

We found significant changes for the following parameters: end-diastolic volume decreased from 382.9 +/- 140.2 ml to 311.3 +/- 138.7 ml, end-systolic volume from 310.4 +/- 132.4 ml to 237.4 +/- 133.8 ml, end-diastolic diameter from 75.3 +/- 7.8 mm to 70.7 +/- 11.6 mm, end-systolic diameter from 65.8 +/- 7.8 mm to 60.0 +/- 14.0 mm, and myocardial mass from 298.6 +/- 79.6 g to 263.1 +/- 76.8 g. Ejection fraction increased from 20.3% +/- 6.4% to 27.8% +/- 13.1%. We found no significant differences for stroke volume (from 72.5 +/- 24.6 ml to 73.8 +/- 23.6 ml), heart rate (from 80.5 +/- 11.0 beats per minute to 76.5 +/- 6.8 beats per minute), and total cardiac output (from 5.8 +/- 1.9 liter/min to 5.6 +/- 1.8 liter/min). Mitral regurgitation fraction decreased from 30.5% +/- 15.5% to 15.6% +/- 12.8%, increasing antegrade cardiac output from 3.8 +/- 0.9 liter/min to 4.7+/-1.5 liter/min. For most parameters, pre- and post-operative values in these patients differed significantly from those in an age- and gender-matched control group. In each patient, we observed a small hyperdense stripe along the pericardium after surgery, but we observed no local complications.

CONCLUSION

Three-dimensional structural and functional data obtained by computerized tomography volume and flow measurements confirm the safety and efficacy of CSD implantation.

Long-term outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to define the potential for long-term survival with severe left ventricular dysfunction after coronary bypass and to quantify any improvement in overall functional status.

METHODS

Left ventricular dysfunction was confirmed preoperatively and the long-term survival and functional outcome after bypass was determined by follow-up studies obtained during the span of a decade.

RESULTS

From 1/1990 to 12/1999, 86 patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction (mean ejection fraction, 0.18 +/- 0.03; range, 0.10 to 0.20) underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. There were 10 perioperative deaths (11% mortality). The mean survival was 55 months (standard deviation +/- 34 months; range, 2 to 141 months) with an actual 5-year survival rate of 59% (actuarial 5-year 65%, 10-year 33%). Echocardiography obtained between 1 and 6 months, 6 months and 1 year, 1 and 2 years, 2 and 4 years, 4 and 6 years, and 6 and 11 years showed the ejection fraction improved to 0.29 +/- 0.08 (p < 0.001), 0.31 +/- 0.14 (p < 0.002), 0.35 +/- 0.08 (p < 0.001), 0.27 +/- 0.10 (p = 0.002), 0.36 +/- 0.14 (p = 0.004), and 0.30 +/- 0.11 (p = 0.004), respectively. At 1 to 6 months, 6 months to 1 year, and 1 to 2 years, the diastolic left ventricular dimension was unchanged, but the systolic left ventricular dimension decreased significantly from 5.02 +/- 0.77 cm to 4.26 +/- 0.91 cm (p = 0.046), 3.98 +/- 1.43 cm (p = 0.08), and 4.10 +/- 1.14 cm (p = 0.07). The preoperative New York Heart Association classification for all patients improved from 2.8 +/- 0.8 to 1.6 +/- 0.7 (p < 0.001) after a mean of 53 months (standard deviation +/- 34 months).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction can derive long-term benefit from coronary bypass through improved left ventricular contractility as documented by a significantly decreased systolic left ventricular dimension and increased ejection fraction. Successful bypass is associated with a 59% actual 5-year survival rate and significantly improved New York Heart Association functional class.

Ventricular reconstruction results in improved left ventricular function and amelioration of mitral insufficiency

INTRODUCTION

Surgical restoration of the left ventricular wall (Dor procedure) has been advocated as a therapy for left ventricular dysfunction due to ischemic cardiomyopathy. This procedure involves placement of an endoventricular patch through a ventriculotomy.

METHODS

We reviewed our series of patients that underwent the Dor procedure within the past 4 years and examined their pre and postoperative ventricular function and mitral valve function. Pre and postoperative ejection fraction and degree of mitral regurgitation were analyzed using the paired Student t-test. We hypothesized that this procedure would result in improved ventricular function and that it would also help improve mitral valve function.

RESULTS

Thirty-four patients underwent this procedure, with one death. Of these, 30 patients underwent concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting and 8 patients had mitral intervention (seven had an Alfieri repair of the mitral valve, and one had mitral valve annuloplasty). The average preoperative ejection fraction among these patients was 26.8% (range 10-45%). The postoperative ejection fraction was significantly higher at 35.4% (range 25-52%) (P <.001). We noted an improvement in ejection fraction in 27 patients (82%). We also noted that 21 of 33 patients (64%) had improvement in the degree of mitral regurgitation based on echocardiography data (P <.001).

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the Dor procedure results in improvement in the left ventricular function. Furthermore, we also note that this procedure ameliorates mitral regurgitation in a majority of these patients even in the absence of associated mitral valve procedures, probably due to reduction in the size of the ventricle and improved orientation of the papillary muscles.