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Show Repair 01 Heart Valves Possible Now By enabling surgeons to work under direct vision rather than "blind," the heart - lung machine mach-ine is now making it possible to correct leaky heart valves resulting result-ing from rheumatic fever, a condition con-dition seldom repaired successfully, successful-ly, through earlier techniques. This was reported here today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions by a team of Seattle surgeons headed by Dr. K. Alvin Merendino of the University Uni-versity of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Merendino and his colleagues collea-gues told of having carried out direct vision repair of leaky mitral mi-tral valves in five patients seriously serious-ly ill with rheumatic heart disease. dis-ease. The mitral valve, which separates se-parates the two chambers of the heart's left side, is often scarred jor deformed as an aftermath of I rheumatic fever. This may prevent prev-ent it from opening as wide as it should (a condition known as mitral mi-tral stenosis) or from closing properly pro-perly (mitral insufficiency or mitral mi-tral incompetence), or both conditions con-ditions may exist simultaneously. The too-tight valve impedes the j flow of blood from the upper to the lower chamber, while the in-J competent valve permits blood to I leak back into the upper cham-i ber at each heart beat. Both con- ditions force the heart to work) harder in order to pump the blood to the body. The added strain may cause the heart to enlarge, be-j icome progressively weaker, and eventually fail. While surgeons have long operated oper-ated successfully by touch alone to widen the opening of the tight! valve, such blind techniques have not proved satisfactory for repairing repair-ing the leaky mitral valve. Using; a heart-lung machine developed at the University of Washington' to take over the patient's circulation, circula-tion, Dr. Merendino and his colleagues col-leagues open the upper left chamber cham-ber of the heart and expose the diseased mitral valve. With its defects de-fects fully visible, they can then make appropriate corrections Mn the closing mechanism of the valve and carry out other indicated indicat-ed valve repairs at, the same time. Dr. Merendino reported that all ..five patients survived the surgery itself, but two, severely ill before operation, died within 24 hours. The other three are fully recovered. recover-ed. Recent check - ups have shown marked improvement, including, in-cluding, reduction, in size, -'in the condition of their hearts, Dr. Merendino Mer-endino said. |
