Original Article The Mid-term Outcome of Geometric Endoventricular Repair for the Patients with Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction

Objective: Recent studies have suggested that increased left ventricular (LV) size is a risk factor for perioperative mortality in patients with low ejection fraction (EF) undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). We previously presented a new method of LV re-construction, called geometric endoventricular repair (GER) as representing a physiologic-ally effective repair. The aim of this study is to assess whether GER confers benefits com-pared to patients undergoing CABG alone. Methods: Between July 1996 and July 2001, 110 patients with a low EF of less than 35% documented by radionuclide ventriculogram (RNVG) underwent CABG in Austin Hospital, Australia, and were divided into two groups. Group I consisted of 52 patients undergoing isolated CABG. Group II comprised 58 patients undergoing CABG and GER. We compared the two groups in terms of EF, NYHA class, incidence of recurrent heart failure, and mortality. Results: Preoperative EF was 27.7±6.1 % in group I and 27.4±5.7 % in group II, respectively (NS), with significant improvement in both groups (33.8±13.0 % in group I, 35.1±13.3 % in group II). NYHA class was also significantly improved postoperatively (from 3.3 to 1.8 in group I, and 3.6 to 1.7 in group II). There were 15 patients (28.8%) hospitalized for hear