Combined mitral valve and coronary artery surgery.

During the past 10 years, 50 patients underwent combined coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and mitral valve replacement (MVR) at our clinic, with additional aortic valve replacement (AVR) in six cases. The early mortality was 8%. During the first half of the study period this mortality was 4/11 patients, but in the second half it was 0/39. All six patients with CABG + MVR + AVR survived the operation. Adverse factors were found to be advanced functional impairment, female sex, concomitant untreated aortic valvulopathy and elevated pulmonary vascular resistance. All 46 patients who survived the operation were followed up for a mean period of 31 months, and during that time there were nine deaths. The survival rate was 54% after 3 years and 40% after 5 years. Most of the patients had improved by at least one functional class. The good results in this series probably were attributable to improvements in surgical procedure (introduction of cold potassium cardioplegia) and in postoperative management (intra-aortic balloon pumping).