Abstract

The objective of our study was to determine the safety and efficacy of mitral valves having been directly operated on the beating heart via a right thoracotomy, placement of sutures into the following patients considered at high risk. In this context, we evaluated the results of mitral valve operations performed through a right lateral chest incision in both the short and medium term. Between January 2016 and December 2022, 13 patients with high EuroSCORE values were operated with this method. The majority of the patients were men with a mean age of 73.4 years. The average EuroSCORE value, known as the patients' risk score, was 12.5. The average duration of heart-lung machine use during the operations was 139 minutes. Two patients died in hospital. The most common problems were recorded as heart arrhythmia and prolonged ventilator use. The survival rate of patients after one year was 77%. The risk of death was significantly higher in patients with cardiac contractility below 30%. In conclusion, this method seems feasible in high-risk patients with reasonable complication and mortality rates. However, appropriate and adequate selection of patients and perioperative risk management is of paramount importance if acceptable results are to be achieved.

Key words: Mitral valve surgery, beating heart surgery, high-risk patients, cardiopulmonary bypass