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Correspondence

Autologous Pericardial Strip Repair of the Tricuspid Valve

Department of Cardiac Surgery, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, PO Box 80215, Jeddah, 21589 Saudi Arabia

(Email: dr.k-e{at}hotmail.com).

To the Editor:

We read with interest the article by Chang and colleagues [1]. We agree with the authors on the benefits of autologous pericardial strip repair of the tricuspid valve. We have performed three of these procedures on 2 adults and 1 child. All the cases were associated with mitral valve replacement, and we found the technique is quite feasible and effective in producing excellent intraoperative and postoperative results. Among the several advantages for this procedure, it is readily available without cost, resists infection, and allows flexible growth in the pediatric age group. Our surgical technique is different from Chang and colleagues [1] in that we perform the repair on a beating heart, which give us better assessment of the tricuspid valve before and after the repair. This also helps to shorten the aortic cross-clamp time and bypass time, which reflects positively on the morbidity and mortality results of these critical patients. We decide the length of the strip according to the appropriate tricuspid obturator sizer, by measuring along its rounded margins between the two notches. We prefer to cross the anteroseptal and the posteroseptal commissures to better anchor the repair to the fibrous skeleton of the heart and to minimize recurrence. Testing the tricuspid valve intraoperatively, we use the coronary sinus suction test, in which we apply the pump sucker to the coronary sinus, and if the tricuspid valve is competent, then there should be no blood in the right atrium. Postoperatively, we have noticed dramatic decrease in the liver size of these patients in addition to the echocardiographic findings reported be Chan and colleagues [1].

	References

Top References

 

1. Chang BC, Song SW, Lee S, Yoo KJ, Kang MS, Chung N. Eight-year outcomes of tricuspid annuloplasty using autologous pericardial strip for functional tricuspid regurgitation Ann Thorac Surg 2008;86:1485-1493.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B.-C. Chang, S. Lee, and S.-Y. Seol Reply Ann. Thorac. Surg., February 1, 2010; 89(2): 674 - 675. [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Al-Ebrahim, K. Articles by Al Alassal, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Al-Ebrahim, K. Articles by Al Alassal, A. Related Collections Valve disease Related Article