[Modified infarction exclusion technique for surgical treatment of postinfarction ventricular septal rupture]

A ventricular septal rupture (VSR) is a fatal complication after an acute myocardial infarction. Surgical repair with an infarction exclusion technique (IET) has improved the surgical outcome for VSR. However, a residual shunt from the left ventricle to the right ventricle has been still one of the problems associated with this technique. We modified the IET so as to avoid the occurrence of the residual shunt In our modification, interrupted mattress sutures were placed transmurally to obtain a secure fixation of the pericardial patch. As for the interventricular septum, the VSR was enlarged to about 1.5 cm in diameter with a cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator to facilitate the placement of transmural sutures from the right ventricle to the left ventricle. We performed VSR repair with this modified IET in 3 patients, and have obtained beneficial results.