Myocardial ischaemic time and its relation with left ventricular ejection fraction after single valve replacement

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The effect of the duration of ischaemic myocardial time to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after valve replacement surgery has been attributed. This study aims to look at the correlation between myocardial ischaemic time and changes LVEF post valve replacement surgery up to 6 months period. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a single centre observational study. Forty-four patients were included in the study from total of 82 patients. Serial echocardiographic examinations were taken at baseline, early postoperative (2 weeks) and late (6 months) post operative. RESULTS: Seventeen males and 27 females, mean age of 46±14 years were studied. Mean NYHA Class was 1.7±0.8. Morbidity recorded in 14 patients (31.8). There were three mortalities (6.8%). Thirty eight (86.4%) patients had mitral valve replacement and 6 (13.6%) patients had aortic valve replacement. Mean cardiopulmonary bypass time (CPB) was 108±25 minutes. Mean time for aortic cross clamping time was 84±20 minutes. Left ventricular end diastolic diameters (LVEDD), left ventricular ejection systolic diameter (LVESD) were significantly reduced from 5.2±0.7 cm to 4.8±0.6 cm and from 3.5±0.7 cm to 3.1±0.5 cm at 6 months respectively. LVEF showed significant improvements from 59±10 cm to 63±10 cm at 6 months. There was no significant correlation between aortic cross clamping time with changes in LVEF at early postoperative (p=0.674) and late postoperative (p=0.798). CONCLUSION: This study showed that improvements in LVEF were seen at 6 months post operatively. We found that the duration of myocardial ischaemic time did not significantly affect post operative LVEF changes.