Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm: twenty-two years of experience with long-term results

1. All patients had preoperative investigations including coronary angiography and left ventriculography. 2. Clinical symptoms, functional outcome and survival rate were analyzed from medical records, patient's follow-up visits, and communications from the referring physicians. 3. All survivors were assessed for clinical functional status and survival rate at the most recent follow-up visits.

long-term postoperative survival rate and the improvement of clinical outcomes.

Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm alone was performed in 9 patients (19.15%). Repair of the left ventricular aneurysm combined with coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 38 patients (80.85%). There was only one death (2.13%) in this study. There was a significant increase in the postoperative mean ejection fraction (EF) of the left ventricle (LV) of 16.83+/-4.93% (p < 0.01) when compared to the preoperative mean EF of the LV. Long-term follow-up of linear repair of the left ventricular aneurysm at a mean of 12.96 years was carried out. 78.13% of patients clinically improved according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class and Kaplan-Meier's method long-term survival rate of 66.61%.

Left ventricular aneurysm was best managed by surgical repair with improvement in quality of life.