| Emergency Surgical Management
of Infective Endocarditis in Two Pregnant Cases |
(Department of Thoracic Surgery, Osaka Medical College,
Osaka, Japan)
| Shigeto Hasegawa |
Kunio Asada |
Junko Okamoto |
| Yukiya Nomura |
Yoshihide Sawada |
Keiichiro Kondo |
| Shinjiro Sasaki |
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We report two emergency mitral valve
replacements performed successfully on 16-week and 29-week pregnant
women for infective endocarditis in the active phase. The first
patient was in severe acute heart failure on admission, and the
fetus was already dead. Induced abortion was performed uneventfully
6 days after mitral valve replacement. The second patient presented
with several episodes of systemic embolization. An echocardiography
revealed giant movable vegetation on the mitral valve. The patient
had emergency mitral valve replacement just after the Caesarian
section. Both the patient and her baby weighting 1,374g had an
uneventful good courses with no complication. We concluded that
in emergency operations in pregnancy, saving the mother's life
should have priority over all else, but we should find the way
to rescue the fetus life if at all possible. Therefore, depending
on the situation, we should not hesitate about doing a simultaneous
operation, Caesarian section and heart surgery, for that purpose.
Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 30: 152-156 (2001) |
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