Conventional AVR surgery yields excellent results after 1 year in lower-risk patients. Catheter-based AVR is a good alternative in high-risk and elderly patients.

The logistic EuroSCORE insufficiently evaluates the risk of the current patient population and therefore should be carefully used as a tool for important therapeutic decision-making.

No abstract

(1) Background: Surgery for infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with considerable mortality and it is controversial whether the female gender is predictive for a worse outcome. This large single-center study investigated the impact of sex on outcomes after surgery for IE. (2) Methods: 413 patients (25.4% female) were included into this retrospective observational study. Univariate and multivariable analyses identified sex-specific risk factors for 30 day and late mortality. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier-method. (3) Results: Women presented more often with mitral valve infection (p = 0.039). Men presented more frequently with previous endocarditis (p = 0.045), coronary heart disease (p = 0.033), and aortic valve infection (p = 0.005). Blood transfusion occurred more frequently intraoperatively in women (p < 0.001), but postoperatively in men (p = 0.015) and men had a longer postoperative stay (p = 0.046). Women showed a higher 30 day mortality than men (p = 0.007) and female gender was predictive for 30 day mortality (OR 2.090). Late survival showed no sex-specific difference (p = 0.853), and the female gender was not an independent predictor for late mortality (p = 0.718). Risk factors for early and late mortality showed distinct sex-specific differences such as increased preoperative CRP level in women and culture-negative IE in men.

Saphenous vein graft patency is frequently limited by degeneration. Experimental studies have indicated that rigid external support of venous grafts by a flexible, tubular nitinol mesh may improve graft patency. The study presented was part of a prospective, randomized, multicenter first-in-man trial investigating the safety and effectiveness of nitinol-supported venous grafts in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. From our clinic, 25 subjects with multivessel coronary artery disease requiring saphenous vein graft CABG of the right coronary artery (RCA) and the circumflex artery were entered into the trial. Subjects were randomized to receive a mesh-supported graft on one of these arteries; the other vessel received an untreated vein graft. Graft patency was assessed by coronary angiography nine months after surgery. The implantation of mesh grafts was simple and safe. In 10 cases, a nitinol mesh-supported venous graft was anastomosed to the circumflex artery and in 15 cases to the RCA. All patients survived the observation period. A total of 72% of the patients underwent control coronary angiography. The patency rate of mesh-supported grafts was 27.8% nine months postoperatively. Conventional vein grafts showed an 85.7% patency, and arterial grafts had a 100% patency. No complications directly related to the implantation of mesh-supported grafts were observed. The promising experimental results of mesh-supported venous grafts could not be reproduced in the study presented. A critical item seems to be correct selection of nitinol mesh diameter, the anastomotic method and fixation of the mesh tube to the venous graft.

Percutaneous resection of heart valves is emerging as a promising auxiliary method for the resection of calcified aortic heart valves because they can be cut endoscopically. Nonetheless, before this resection tool can be clinically applied by surgeons to perform a true percutaneous valve replacement, an additional aortic valve resection chamber (already at the prototype stage) designed for capturing all debris, has to be established.

NCT02655094.

Dieses Positionspapier ist eine Stellungnahme der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie -Herz-und Kreislaufforschung (DGK), die den gegenwärtigen Erkenntnisstand wiedergibt und allen Ärzten und ihren Patienten die Entscheidungsfindung erleichtern soll. Es werden bisher publizierte, relevante Studien herangezogen, gelöste Fragen beantwortet und ungelöste aufgezeigt. Es wird eine Empfehlung abgegeben, für welche Patienten das vorgestellte (diagnostische und/oder therapeutische) Verfahren infrage kommt. Der Zusammenhang zwischen der jeweiligen Empfehlung und dem zugehörigen Evidenzgrad ist gekennzeichnet. Das Positionspapier ersetzt nicht die ärztliche Evaluation des individuellen Patienten und die Anpassung der Diagnostik und Therapie an dessen spezifische Situation.Der Einsatz der Edwards-Sapien-Klappe in Pulmonalposition, Mitralposition oder in degenerierten Bioprothesen ist nicht zertifiziert und entspricht einem sog. "off-label-use".Kardiologe