Lung function and cardiac surgery

In a series of 145 patients submitted to cardiac surgery, lung function data were correlated with the kind of heart disease, mitral or oartic or coronary stenosis; the post-operative evolution was evaluated. Patients with valvular diseases (VD) have a significant lower transfer capacity (TL) than coronary patients; mitral VD show a lower forced vital capacity (FVC) than aortic VD. All the patients present an important restrictive pattern in the early post-operative period. The long-term follow-up (greater than 6 months) objectivates the highly significant decrease of FVC and FEV1 in all categories of patients, while the total lung capacity remains low only in aortic VD. The transfer coefficient (TL/VA) improves significantly after mitral valve replacement, but it does not change in the other cases.