Reconstruction of the left ventricle with autologous pericardium.

Autologous pericardium was used to reconstruct different parts of the left ventricle in 25 desperately ill patients. Fourteen patients had intractable sepsis resulting from infective endocarditis and myocardial abscess and 10 patients had noninfectious disorders. Of the patients with infections, 12 had valvular endocarditis with periannular abscess and three had interventricular septal abscess. The noninfected patients had acute rupture of the ventricular wall after mitral valve replacement (one patient) heavily calcified or surgically absent mitral anulus (three patients), or rupture of the interventricular septum after acute myocardial infarction (six patients). The interventricular septum, the posterior wall of the left ventricle, and the periannular areas were reconstructed by suturing appropriately tailored pericardial patches directly to the endocardium. In patients who also required valve replacement, the prosthetic valve was partially or completely secured to the pericardial patch. There were three operative deaths. All three patients were in either septic or cardiogenic shock before operation and in none of them was the death related to the pericardial patch. All 22 survivors have been observed from 3 to 34 months, an average of 14 months. There has been no case of patch dehiscence, patch aneurysm, prosthetic valve dehiscence, or recurrent endocarditis. Autologous pericardium appears to be safe for reconstruction of the left ventricle. It is easy to handle and problems with suture line bleeding are practically nonexistent.