[Left ventricular performance before and after left ventriculotomy and removal of a left ventricular aneurysm]

The effects of left ventriculotomy on left ventricular performance were studied in seven patients with ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) and nine patients with left ventricular aneurysm (LVA). Hemodynamic and left ventriculographic findings were evaluated before and after operations. In VT the non-contracting areas, measured at end-diastole, as mean 10.8 +/- 7.1% of the left ventricular internal surface area. There was no significant fall in left ventricular ejection fractions (EF), cardiac indexes (CI) and left ventricular end-diastolic volume indexes (LVEDVI) after left ventriculotomy. In LVA, the non-contracting areas decreased from 31.0 +/- 7.4% to 13.7 +/- 13.5% (p less than 0.01) in association with a reflex decrease in LVEDVI from 117 +/- 31.8 ml/m2 to 90.4 +/- 24.7 ml/m2 (p less than 0.05). EF increased from 40.8 +/- 7.00% to 54.6 +/- 10.7% (p less than 0.01). There was no significant change in CI and left ventricular stroke volume index after left ventricular aneurysmectomy. The observations indicate that left ventriculotomy of limited size is an acceptable and a safety approach to the ventricular tachyarrhythmias and another cardiac operations.