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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1996;111:1026-1036
© 1996 Mosby, Inc.
SURGERY FOR ACQUIRED HEART DISEASE |
From the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mayo Foundation, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Received for publication June 21, 1995 Revisions requested Sept. 21, 1995; revisions received Dec. 28, 1995 Accepted for publication Jan. 3, 1996. Address for reprints: Charles J. Mullany, MB, MS, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St., SW, Rochester, MN 55905.
Abstract
We have studied 322 patients, 80 years of age or older, who underwent aortic valve replacement between June 1971 and December 1992. Two hundred six patients (64%) have had surgery since the end of 1985. Their mean age was 82.7 years (range 80 to 92 years). One hundred seventy-one (53%) were male and most (86%) were in New York Heart Association class III-IV. Fifty-seven patients (18%) required admission to the coronary care unit before the operation. One hundred seventy-nine patients (56%) underwent an urgent or emergency operation. Known cerebrovascular disease was present in 77 (24% of patients), aortic stenosis in 79%, aortic incompetence in 9%, and combined stenosis and incompetence in 12%. Associated procedures included bypass grafting in 139 (43%), mitral valve replacement/repair in 20 (6%), tricuspid valve repair in 6 (2%), and aortic annular enlargement in 38 (12%). Thirty patients (9.3%) were undergoing reoperation. Hospital mortality was 44 of 322 (13.7%). The median hospital stay was 11 days. On univariate analysis, significant predictors of hospital mortality were female sex, preoperative rest pain, New York Heart Association class III-IV, admission to the coronary care unit, heart failure, mitral valve disease, emergency/urgent operation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bypass grafting, valve size, peripheral vascular disease, and ejection fraction less than 0.35. On multivariate analysis the most important independent predictors of operative mortality were female gender (p = 0.0001), renal impairment (p = 0.001), bypass grafting (p = 0.005), ejection fraction less than 0.35 (p = 0.01), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (p = 0.028). Age and year of operation did not influence mortality. Five-year survivals for all patients and for operative survivors were 60.2% ± 3.2% and 70.3% ± 3.4%, respectively. On univariate analysis, factors that adversely affected long-term survival were coronary bypass grafting (p = 0.007), more than two comorbidities (p = 0.02), male gender (p = 0.04), and ejection fraction less than 0.35 (p = 0.04). On multivariate analysis, no factor was consistently significant for long-term survival. At most recent clinical follow-up 85% were angina free and 82% were in class I-II. At least 92% of patients, both at 1 year and at most recent clinical follow-up, believed they had significantly benefited from the operation:
Conclusion:Risk factors for aortic valve replacement in octogenarians include female gender, unstable symptoms, poor ejection fraction, renal impairment, and bypass grafting. However, despite a hospital mortality higher than that reported for younger patients, the outlook for operative survivors is excellent, with good relief of symptoms and an expected survival normal for this particular age group. If possible, aortic valve replacement should be done before development of unstable symptoms.(J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1996;111:1026-36)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, in 1995 the number of Americans aged 75 years or older was 14.5 million and by the year 2005 this figure is expected to rise to 17.1 million.
1 Thus elderly persons constitute 6% of the population, and at least 46% are thought to have symptomatic cardiac disease.
2 With this aging of the population and the greater use of noninvasive diagnostic techniques, particularly echocardiography with two-dimensional Doppler ultrasonography, the diagnosis of symptomatic aortic valve disease, particularly aortic stenosis, is becoming increasingly common. Although aortic valve replacement (AVR) has a higher risk in older patients, AVR is the only effective treatment for symptomatic aortic stenosis. Age alone is not a contraindication for this operation, inasmuch as several studies have shown that AVR in patients 80 years or older can be performed with an acceptable operative mortality and morbidity.
3-12 However, the long-term outcome in these patients has not been documented. To analyze these issues further, we have reviewed our early and long-term results in patients aged 80 years and older who have undergone AVR at the Mayo Medical Center, Rochester, Minnesota, between June 1971 and December 1992.
Methods
Records of 322 patients who underwent AVR, with or without concomitant procedures, were reviewed. A total of 84 preoperative, operative, and postoperative variables were recorded. Follow-up information was obtained from all hospital survivors through clinic visits and annual letters. Between May and July 1994 all known survivors were sent a letter questionnaire. This was designed to determine general health status, presence or absence of chest pain, dyspnea or angina pectoris, postoperative New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, the overall effects of the operation, and quality of life. Any subsequent reoperation was also recorded. Questionnaires were also sent to the patient's local physician.
Coronary artery disease was defined as a reduction of vessel diameter by at least 50% in one view on coronary angiography. Stenosis to this degree in the left anterior descending system, circumflex system, or right coronary system was used for the criterion of single, double, or triple vessel disease. Stenosis of 50% or more in the left main coronary artery was described as double vessel disease in the absence of other coronary stenoses. Operative mortality was any death occurring within 30 days of the operation or death during the same hospital admission as the operation. Renal impairment was defined as a serum creatinine concentration of 1.5 mg/dl or more. Heart failure was determined by the presence of pulmonary congestion or opacities consistent with edema on chest roentgenograms.
Distribution for all relevant variables has been expressed either as percentages or as mean ± standard deviation. The effects of nominal risk factors, such as presence of rest pain, on early mortality were evaluated univariately with
2 tests or Fisher's exact test. The effects of continuous variables, such as age and serum creatinine concentration, were univariately evaluated with two-sample t tests or with Wilcoxon rank sum tests when necessary. Combinations of risk factors were multivariately evaluated with multiple logistic regression models. Survivorship to death, for all patients and for all hospital survivors, was estimated by means of the Kaplan-Meier method. To assess separately those risk factors related to late survival as distinct from operative deaths, we analyzed only hospital survivors. Nominal risk factors for survival were assessed with log-rank tests. Continuous measurable risk factors, such as age, and combinations of risk factors, both nominal and continuous, were evaluated with Cox's proportional hazards models. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
The study comprised 171 men (53%) and 151 women. Their mean age was 82.7 years (range 80 to 92 years). The majority of patients have undergone surgery since 1986. The distribution of patients undergoing surgery during three different time periods was as follows: 16 (5%) in 1971 to 1977, 100 (31%) in 1978 to 1985; and 206 (64%) in 1986 to 1992.
Symptoms included dyspnea (310, 96%), angina pectoris (134, 42%), and syncope (88, 27%). A diagnosis of heart failure was made in 197 (61%) patients. A total of 276 (86%) patients were considered to be in NYHA class III-IV. Only seven patients had no or minimal symptoms. Two hundred fifty-four (79%) patients were considered to have aortic stenosis, 28 (9%) had mixed aortic stenosis and regurgitation, and 39 (12%) had aortic insufficiency. Preoperative comorbidities are listed in
Table I. Seventy-seven (24%) patients had known cerebrovascular disease. Of these, 34 (11%) had had cerebrovascular accidents or had undergone carotid endarterectomy (or both). Twenty-two (7%) of the patients had known or resected abdominal aneurysms. One hundred forty-three (44%) patients had an elective operation, 163 (51%) had an urgent operation because of angina or heart failure that did not respond to the usual clinical measures, and 16 (5%) patients required an emergency operation for hemodynamic deterioration. Only one patient required an intraaortic balloon pump before the operation. Men and women differed significantly with regard to certain clinical features (
Table II). Whereas men were more likely to have coronary artery disease, a history of myocardial infarction, renal impairment, and a need for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), women tended to have heart failure and required smaller prostheses. Women were also more likely to reside in the local community.
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The 1- and 5-year survivals (± standard error of the mean) of all patients were 83.3% ± 2.1% and 60.2% ± 3.2%, respectively. For operative survivors, the corresponding survivals were 96.7% ± 1.1% and 70.3% ± 3.4%, respectively (Fig. 1). The 5-year mortality of a population matched for age and sex is 59.0% ± 3.4% (p = 0.057). On univariate analysis, the following factors were significantly related to the long-term survival of those patients who left the hospital: gender (male: 5 years, 66.3% ± 4.6%; female: 5 years, 75.7% ± 4.8%; p = 0.04), CABG (p = 0.007), presence of more than two comorbidities (p = 0.02), and ejection fraction less than 0.35 (p = 0.04) (Figs. 2 to 5). No difference in survival was noted between patients 82 years old or less and those older than 82 years. When the aforementioned significant factors were entered into a Cox regression analysis, it was not possible to derive a consistent multivariate model to predict risk factors influencing survival.
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Three patients had another cardiac operation. Two operations were for perivalvular regurgitation and the third for a leaflet perforation of a previously placed Carpentier-Edwards porcine bioprosthesis (Baxter Healthcare Corp., Edwards Div., Santa Ana, Calif.).
Discussion
With the aging of the population, elderly patients are being increasingly referred to and being accepted by the cardiac surgeon for the surgical management of aortic stenosis. This trend has also been accentuated by the broader use of two-dimensional echocardiography with Doppler ultrasonography
13 for the noninvasive evaluation of valvular heart disease and by the greater willingness of referring cardiologists to examine elderly patients with angina primarily with a view to myocardial revascularization. Although 43% of our patients underwent combined AVR and CABG, we do not have information on how many were primarily evaluated for myocardial ischemia and were found to have incidental aortic stenosis. In previous studies we
14 have shown that patients undergoing combined AVR and CABG have lesser degrees of aortic stenosis than those with isolated aortic stenosis.
AVR remains the only effective treatment for aortic stenosis. Previous studies of natural history have shown a poor outcome for patients with severe aortic stenosis who were treated medically.
15,16 Although some hoped that percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty would be a successful treatment for aortic stenosis in elderly patients, both the medium- and long-term results of this therapy have been extremely disappointing. Symptoms have recurred within 1 year of treatment in most patients and have necessitated subsequent surgery.
17,18 Aortic balloon valvuloplasty is no longer covered by Medicare. In addition, aortic valve decalcification has not been effective in the long term, with many patients returning for further surgery for either recurrent aortic stenosis or significant aortic regurgitation.
19
We believe that most elderly patients with significant symptomatic aortic stenosis are candidates for AVR. Clearly comorbid disease, such as renal impairment and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, increases operative risk. However, we do not have any information on how many patients were turned down for, or declined, surgery. Serious life-threatening illness such as disseminated malignant disease, severe disability from a cerebrovascular accident, or marked infirmity would be contraindications for surgery. In these elderly patients, the decision to operate needs to be individualized, with the patient and family aware of the risks and benefits of the operation. Our results clearly show that the majority of patients do well, with the 5-year survival far better than that for untreated symptomatic aortic stenosis.
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Patients in whom coronary artery disease is the primary problem may have mild aortic stenosis, which by itself would not necessarily warrant an operation. The decision whether to replace the aortic valve in such circumstances is difficult. However, we believe that the surgeon should favor AVR, particularly inasmuch as AVR after previous CABG carries a substantial mortality. In a recent review of our own experience, the operative mortality for AVR after previous CABG was 16.2%.
*
Several points in the operative technique for AVR in elderly patients need emphasis. The cardiac tissues are often friable and careful handling of the heart during all aspects of the operation is essential. The small aortic root, particularly in the female patient, may need to be enlarged to accommodate a valve of adequate size. In most instances we would avoid placement of a 19 mm tissue valve and instead enlarge the aortic root with a pericardial patch.
21,22 Not only does this allow placement of a valve one size larger, but it may also facilitate placement of the valve, including closure of the aortic root. Most patients should receive a tissue valve inasmuch as the long-term durability of such valves in this age group is excellent and the need for long-term anticoagulation is avoided. If the patient requires multiple coronary artery grafts, use of the internal thoracic artery is helpful because this avoids an additional aortic anastomosis.
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Cerebrovascular accidents continue to be important complications of surgery in this age group. However, we found no correlation between these events and a history of cerebrovascular or peripheral vascular disease. Others have shown that aortic calcification, older age, perioperative hypotension, and prolonged bypass time are important determinants of perioperative strokes.
25 Inasmuch as most cerebral events are thought to be embolic, careful aortic cannulation, removal of loose calcific debris in the aorta, removal of air, and minimal reclamping of the aorta should be important aspects of the operation in this age group. Maintenance of adequate perfusion pressure during cardiopulmonary bypass (>60 mm Hg), particularly in patients with known cerebrovascular disease, is most probably important. The role of systemic hypothermia versus normothermic perfusion remains a subject of controversy.
26,27 However, recent data suggest that systemic hypothermia is likely to be more cerebroprotective than normothermia.
26
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The long-term results of AVR are clearly better than the results of untreated aortic stenosis. The long-term survival, which is equivalent at least to that of an age- and sex-matched population, probably indicates in part a process by which both cardiologists and surgeons have selected suitable candidates for surgery. The improvement in quality of life further emphasizes the value of surgical treatment in this particular age group. We believe that successful treatment probably results in fewer subsequent admissions to the hospital for repeated management of heart failure or angina. This is likely to result in significant cost savings, particularly in an era of increasing scarcity of health care dollars.
Appendix: Discussion
Dr. Aurelio Chaux (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Given the fast growth of the population 80 years and older, it is important to continue to collect information regarding the results of cardiac surgery and the determinants of outcomes in this group. In this review, the authors have reiterated that acute symptoms such as rest pain indicate that surgery should be performed on an urgent or emergency basis. They also reiterate that female gender, low ejection fraction, renal impairment, and the presence of mitral valve disease are important predictors of operative mortality. The hospital mortality of 13.7% reported by the authors is three times higher than the mortality reported last year by our group, and female gender was very significant in their series. This leads me to my first question. Do you think that the frequent use of aortic root enlargement, particularly in women, has some effect on this mortality? We rarely use this operation and would prefer, if there is no contraindication to warfarin sodium, to implant a mechanical prosthesis. I noticed a correlation, not only with female gender, but also with small size valve. Can you provide more information regarding the results in this subgroup of patients in which aortic root enlargement was performed.
Dr. Gehlot
At the Mayo Clinic there is a low threshold for doing aortic annular enlargement with a pericardial patch. Thirty-eight patients required aortic annular enlargement so that a larger size valve could be inserted. In addition, enlargement of the aortic root makes it easier to close the aortotomy. Of 38 patients who had annular enlargement, six died.
Dr. Chaux
One of the important contributions of this review is to provide information regarding the long-term outcomes. Your mean follow-up is a very respectable 46 months. In the univariate analysis, factors that adversely affected the long-term survival were male sex, concomitant CABG, presence of two comorbidities, and low ejection fraction. I was surprised by the fact that in a multivariate analysis none of the factors remained significant according to your manuscript. I wonder if the reason for this is that when you performed the multivariate analysis, you tested only those that were statistically significant and not all of the factors that were analyzed in the univariate analysis.
Dr. Gehlot
All the factors that were significant on univariate analysis for long-term survival were entered into the Cox regression analysis. By entering them into a forward or backward model, we found a different factor that came up significant in each model. Therefore, none of the factors was consistently significant on multivariate analysis.
Dr. Chaux
I think to do the multivariate analysis you should include all of the factors, not just the ones that were significant in the univariate analysis. We have always found, for instance, that age continues to be a significant factor that influences the long-term results of the patient.
In the manuscript you state that only 56% of patients have preoperative cardiac catheterization. Do you mean that only 56% had invasive hemodynamic evaluation? If so, did all patients have preoperative coronary angiography?
Dr. Gehlot
Of the 322 patients, 300 patients had an estimate of their left ventricular ejection fraction by cardiac catheterization or echocardiography or both. There were 221 patients who had an echocardiogram and there were 172 patients who had cardiac catheterization with left ventriculography.
Dr. Chaux
Did all patients have coronary angiography?
Dr. Gehlot
I believe that there were a few patients during the early years of our experience who did not have coronary angiography.
Dr. Chaux
How can you estimate the incidence of coronary artery disease in this population if you do not know preoperatively what the coronary anatomy is?
Dr. Gehlot
The great majority of the patients had coronary angiography before the operation.
Dr. Chaux
Do you agree that there are three different types of patient populations that should be analyzed separately, namely, those with isolated aortic valve disease, those with primarily aortic valve disease and incidental coronary artery disease, and those with primarily coronary artery disease and incidental findings of aortic valve disease? In our experience, if we analyze the results in this way, these results are entirely different.
Dr. Gehlot
You are correct. The paper we have presented considers anyone who has had an AVR, including those with coexisting coronary artery disease or mitral valve disease. However, we do not have information on which patients were primarily investigated for coronary artery disease and found to have incidental aortic valve disease. Valve mortality for isolated AVR was approximately 8%.
Dr. Chaux
Finally, the survival curves that you have presented eliminated the hospital mortality. Don't you think that, in trying to determine survival in this patient population, this is an important factor that should be included in the analysis? I think that it is misleading to eliminate hospital mortality from consideration when advising our elderly patients as to whether they should have an operation or not. Do you agree or disagree?
Dr. Gehlot
When we are discussing the operation with a patient, he or she is interested in what the surgical risk is. If the operation is successful, we are able to explain to the patient what the long-term outlook is expected to be. This is why we have presented the data in this fashion.
Dr. Chaux
If you are going to do that, you have to be very clear and explicit about the reasons why you eliminated the hospital mortality from the analysis.
Dr. John V. Redington (Torrance, Calif.)
Dr. Gehlot, have you addressed the issue of extensive ascending aortic atherosclerosis? We are seeing this comorbidity more frequently in this patient population. It has forced me to do AVR with deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest with retrograde cerebral perfusion. Do you have a subpopulation with extensive ascending atherosclerosis? What has your strategy been in handling that phenomenon in the octogenarian population?
Dr. Gehlot
We did not specifically evaluate aortic atherosclerosis as a comorbid factor. However, we did attempt to see what risk factors were present in the 27 patients who had a postoperative cerebrovascular accident. Diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, known preoperative cerebrovascular disease, and preoperative abdominal aneurysm did not have any relationship to the development of postoperative stroke.
Dr. Redington
Have you used deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest in any octogenarian patients with profound ascending aortic atherosclerosis?
Dr. Gehlot
There were one or two patients who had surgery with deep hypothermia and total circulatory arrest.
Dr. Redington
Your impression, then, is that at least aortic embolic events have not been an identifiable cause of cerebrovascular accidents in your population.
Dr. Gehlot
In general, most cerebrovascular events after cardiac surgery are thought to be embolic in nature. We believe careful handling of the tissues, including aortic cannulation, removal of all calcific debris, and evacuation of air at the completion of the procedure are important aspects of the operation.
Dr. Redington
That is rather the point of my question. One would have to suspect that atheroembolic events from the ascending aorta in this population would be a substantial contributor to cerebrovascular accidents and therefore morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Gehlot
You are correct that aortic atheroemboli are believed to be an important cause of perioperative stroke. This is a large series over many years and we do not have enough information about the state of the aorta in all of these patients.
Dr. R. Scott Mitchell (Stanford, Calif.)
Dr. Stinson at our institution looked at a similar cohort of elderly patients and saw also that the extent of age was significantly ameliorated by comorbidities. One of the comorbidities that was very significant was obstructive pulmonary disease, which did not achieve significance in your paper. Can you comment about that difference? Our patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, renal insufficiency, and decreased ejection fractions all had significant increases in operative mortality. You did not find that in your patients.
Dr. Gehlot
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had a mortality of 21.5% compared with 11.7% for those without this disease. However, on multivariate analysis this was not significant.
Dr. Mitchell
Do you have any information about the length of stay for this hospital cohort?
Dr. Gehlot
The median length of stay in this population was 11 days.
Dr. Colleen F. Sintek (Los Angeles, Calif.)
I rise to offer an alternative to aortic root enlargement or to placement of a mechanical prosthesis in this age group of patients. At our institution for the past 2
years we have been using the stentless porcine aortic root supplied by Medtronic, Inc., the Freestyle valve. In this group of patients, we have found excellent hemodynamics in the small valve sizes, even sizes 19 and 21, with very low transvalvular gradients. We have used the freehand technique, leaving the noncoronary sinus portion of the Freestyle valve intact. The valve is fairly easy to insert, the technique is less demanding than an aortic root enlargement procedure, and one can use the retained noncoronary sinus portion of the Freestyle valve to augment that portion of the aortotomy or to reinforce it so that it does not bleed.
Dr. Gehlot
We have used the stentless valve, but not in this age group. We do not believe that this is a device that should be used routinely for the small aortic root.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge contributions to patient care by Dr. Gordon Danielson, Dr. Francisco Puga, Dr. Christopher McGregor, Dr. Jeffrey Piehler, Dr. James Pluth, and Dr. R. Michael King and careful typing of the manuscript by Kathy Distad.
Footnotes
Read at the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of The Western Thoracic Surgical Association, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, June 21-24, 1995. ![]()
*Fellow, Cardiothoracic Surgery. ![]()
***Associate in Biostatistics. ![]()
J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1996;111:1026-36 ![]()
*Odell JA, Mullany CJ, Schaff HV, Orszulak TA, Morris JJ. Aortic valve replacement after previous coronary artery bypass grafting. Unpublished data. ![]()
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M. W. Rich Heart Failure in the 21st Century: A Cardiogeriatric Syndrome J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, February 1, 2001; 56(2): M88 - M96. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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B. C. Astor, R. G. Kaczmarek, B. Hefflin, and W. R. Daley Mortality after aortic valve replacement: results from a nationally representative database Ann. Thorac. Surg., December 1, 2000; 70(6): 1939 - 1945. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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W. E. Jamieson, E. Germann, G. J Fradet, S. V Lichtenstein, R. T Miyagishima, W. E. Jamieson, E. Germann, G. J Fradet, S. V Lichtenstein, and R. T Miyagishima Bioprostheses and Mechanical Prostheses Predictors of Performance Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann, June 1, 2000; 8(2): 121 - 126. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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R. Pretre and M. I Turina VALVE DISEASE: Cardiac valve surgery in the octogenarian Heart, January 1, 2000; 83(1): 116 - 121. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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T Gilbert, W Orr, and A P Banning Surgery for aortic stenosis in severely symptomatic patients older than 80 years: experience in a single UK centre Heart, August 1, 1999; 82(2): 138 - 142. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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B. Yamak, A T. Ulus, S F. Katircioglu, B. Mavitas, A. Saritas, O. Tasdemir, and K. Bayazit Surgery for Combined Rheumatic Valve and Coronary Artery Disease Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann, March 1, 1999; 7(1): 33 - 36. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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U. Hvass, G. M. Palatianos, R. Frassani, C. Puricelli, and M. O'Brien MULTICENTER STUDY OF STENTLESS VALVE REPLACEMENT IN THE SMALL AORTIC ROOT J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg., February 1, 1999; 117(2): 267 - 272. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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M. J. R. Dalrymple-Hay, A. Alzetani, S. Aboel-Nazar, M. Haw, S. Livesey, and J. Monro Cardiac surgery in the elderly Eur J Cardiothorac Surg, January 1, 1999; 15(1): 61 - 66. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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B. Medalion, B. W. Lytle, P. M. McCarthy, R. W. Stewart, K. L. Arheart, J. H. Arnold, F. D. Loop, and D. M. Cosgrove III Aortic valve replacement for octogenarians: are small valves bad? Ann. Thorac. Surg., September 1, 1998; 66(3): 699 - 706. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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J. H. Khan, D. B. McElhinney, T. S. Hall, and S. H. Merrick Cardiac Valve Surgery in Octogenarians: Improving Quality of Life and Functional Status Arch Surg, August 1, 1998; 133(8): 887 - 893. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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J. Ninet, F. Tronc, J. Robin, A. Curtil, I. Aleksic, and G. Champsaur Mechanical versus biological isolated aortic valvular replacement after the age of 70: equivalent long-term results Eur J Cardiothorac Surg, January 1, 1998; 13(1): 84 - 89. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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G. Asimakopoulos, M.-B. Edwards, and K. M. Taylor Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients 80 Years of Age and Older : Survival and Cause of Death Based on 1100 Cases: Collective Results From the UK Heart Valve Registry Circulation, November 18, 1997; 96(10): 3403 - 3408. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
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C. W. Akins, W. M. Daggett, G. J. Vlahakes, A. D. Hilgenberg, D. F. Torchiana, J. C. Madsen, and M. J. Buckley Cardiac Operations in Patients 80 Years Old and Older Ann. Thorac. Surg., September 1, 1997; 64(3): 606 - 614. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
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T. A. Orszulak, H. V. Schaff, F. J. Puga, G. K. Danielson, C. J. Mullany, B. J. Anderson, and D. M. Ilstrup Event Status of the Starr-Edwards Aortic Valve to 20 Years: A Benchmark for Comparison Ann. Thorac. Surg., March 1, 1997; 63(3): 620 - 626. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
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M. L. McDonald, R. C. Daly, H. V. Schaff, C. J. Mullany, F. A. Miller, J. J. Morris, and T. A. Orszulak Hemodynamic Performance of Small Aortic Valve Bioprostheses: Is There a Difference? Ann. Thorac. Surg., February 1, 1997; 63(2): 362 - 366. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
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