Partial ileal bypass in type II familial hypercholesterolemia. Eleven-year experience at the Montreal Heart institute

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is currently sponsoring a multicenter clinical trial to evaluate the long-term efficacy of partial ileal bypass in the prevention of recurrent myocardial infarction in hypercholesterolemia patients. Thus we felt that a report of our clinical results with this intervention at the Montreal Heart Institute during the last 11 years would be of interest. Twenty patients with type II hyperlipoproteinemia and a mean age of 38 (range 25-54) years underwent partial ileal bypass between March 1971 and April 1978. This intervention was associated with aortocoronary bypass surgery in 11 patients. All patients were followed at regular intervals. The mean survival time was 70.7 (range 1-123) months. Two deaths were observed during follow-up, one from an acute myocardial infarction and the other from ventricular fibrillation, respectively, 1 month and 1 and one-half years after partial ileal bypass. The ileal bypass was undone twice because of gastrointestinal problems including a malabsorption syndrome and repeated episodes of subocclusion. A progressive decrease of the effects of the operation on serum cholesterol was noted, from a 33 per cent reduction at 3 months to 43 per cent at 2 years and 16 per cent at 6 years. Two patients presented an acute myocardial infarction respectively 3 and 4 years after the operation, respectively, and one patient suffered a right-sided hemiplegia at age 30, 12 months after the operation. Of 14 patients with angina pectoris preoperatively (class III in 10), eight remained symptomatic postoperatively (class I and II angina in five).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)