[Postoperative complications and treatments after Bentall operation]

Postoperative complications of Bentall operation for the annuloaortic ectasia have frequently occurred, although the mortality has been reduced. To reduce complications after Bentall operation we have taken three major treatments since 1987. The first was reimplantation technique of coronary ostia in replacing the ascending aorta and the aortic valve with a tube graft. The second was the infusion technique of cardioplegic solution such as retrograde cardioplegia infusion. The third method was to save blood and reduce the blood transfusion by preserving autoblood preoperatively and using cell saving machine. The purpose of this study was to analyse 20 patients who underwent the Bentall procedure and to investigate the effect of our treatments in Bentall operation on the operative results. We divided our patients into two groups. Fourteen patients in the group 1 were operated before 1987, when our principles were not performed. Six patients in group II were operated under the principles mentioned above. There were no differences in cardiopulmonary bypass time and ischemic time between group I and II. Transfused blood volume in group II was remarkably less than that of group I. Postoperative complications occurred in all patients in group I (100%), while three patients in group II (50%) had complications (p less than 0.05). We, hence, conclude that our method could be useful for reducing postoperative complication rate in Bentall operation.