Implications of left ventricular mass index on early postoperative outcome in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement

Aim of the work: To study the prognostic influence of the preoperative left ventricular mass index (LVMI) on early postoperative outcome in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement (AVR). Patients and methods: We studied 61 patients (41 males and 20 females) who underwent elective AVR for isolated or mixed aortic valve lesions. LVMI was calculated by trans-thoracic echocardiography in all patients. We classified our patients into two groups: group 1 patients had increased LVMI (>134 g/m2 in males and >110 g/m2 in females) and group 2 patients who had normal LVMI. Aortic valve replacement was done in all patients. Results: We found 48 (age 28.4 ± 12 years) patients with increased LVMI (group 1) and 13 (age 27.2 ± 12 years) with normal LVMI (group 2). There was significantly increase in the need of prolonged use of inotropic support (62.5% versus 31%, P value = 0.041), intensive care unit (ICU) stay and post-operative hospital stay (4.02 ± 2.1 versus 2.3 ± 1.8 days, P value = 0.011 and 8.4 ± 2.4 versus 6.6 ± 2.8 days, 0.025 respectively) in group 1 compared with group 2. The occurrence of post operative ventricular arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation (AF) was higher in group 1 but still statistically insignificant. During post operative period two patients died in group 1 and one patient in group 2. Conclusion: The increase of LVMI values is associated with increased in-hospital morbidity in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement