Aortic Valve Replacement In The Elderly 70 Years Old Or Over

Objective: to introduce our experience in treating the elder people 70 years old or over who suffered from the aortic valve disease , and mainly introduce the characteristic of the surgical skills .Methods : review the 27 elder people 70 years old or over , who received aortic valve replacement(AVR) surgery in our hospital between the December 1998 and the December 2005. 20 cases was AVR , 7 cases was Double valve replacement(DVR). There were 3 cases having comitant ascending aorta wrapping , 2 cases having comitant Coronary Artery bypass grafting . There were 25 cases using mechanical valve and 2 case using biological valve among the 27 cases.Results : the mean day staying in the intensive care unit(ICU) was 4.6 days , postoperative in-hospital stay was 33.5 days . There were 2 cases dead postoperative(7.4%) . Another case was dead more than twomonths later after operative . During the follow-up , time between 1 month and 69 months after surgery , 2 cases were missed . Till the end of follow-up ,the other 22 cases were all survival, and the heart function was improved to NYHAI in 18 cases and to NYHAII in 4 cases .conclusions : Pay enough attention to the pathological and physiological characteristic of the elder people , sufficient preparing before surgery , good surgical skills , competent myocardial preservation and good postoperative treatment , AVR surgery of the elder people 70 years old or over can have a good result.