The benefits of surgical closure has been unclear in adult atrial septal defect (ASD) with severe pulmonary hypertension (PHT), and we tried to evaluate improvement of PHT and long-term survival after surgical closure compared to medical follow-up.
Methods:
From 1996 to 2006, we included a total of 71 adult ASD patients (age; 43±15 years) with severe PHT documented by echocardiography. The inclusion criteria were defined as ASD diameter > 15 mm, enlarged right ventricle, and the baseline peak velocity of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) ≥ 4.0 m/sec. We excluded 5 patients with Eisenmenger syndrome documented by cardiac catheterization. Surgical closure was performed on 55 patients (OP group) and the remaining 16 patients were followed up medically (MED group). The improvement of PHT was defined as TR velocity ≤ 3.5 m/sec on follow-up echo.
Results:
Baseline characteristics and clinical results were compared between the two groups in table
. There were no significant differences in terms of gender, ASD diameter, cardiac rhythm, and TR velocity, but the MED group was significantly older. During follow-up of 46±33 months, there were 5 deaths in the MED group and no operative or late death in the OP group, and the 5-year actuarial survival rate of the OP group was significantly higher than the MED group (58±15%, p<0.05). On subgroup analysis according to age, the OP group showed significantly better survival rates than the MED group (p<0.05) in elderly patients (age > 50). In the OP group, TR velocity was significantly decreased from 4.5±0.4 to 3.0±0.7 m/sec on follow-up echo, and improvement of PHT was observed in 47 (85%) patients. On multivariate analysis, female gender and lower baseline TR velocity were the significant independent predictors of improved PHT after surgery.
Conclusions:
In adult ASD with severe PHT, surgical closure can be safely performed and improve PHT effectively. Especially in elderly patients, ASD closure is significantly related with the better survival rates.
Early and six-month assessment of bi-ventricular functions following surgical closure of atrial septal defect
