Bovine jugular vein conduit for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction: Evaluation of risk factors for mid-term outcome
Abstrakt
Background. The bovine jugular vein conduit (Contegra [Medtronic, Inc, Minneapolis, MN]) is one option for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction.
We examined the effect of patient age, conduit size, hemodynamics, and cardiac malformation on early and mid-term outcome. Methods.
Seventy-eight bovine jugular vein implantations were performed over 5 years. Follow-up averaged 31 +/- 17 months.
Risk factor and adverse event analyses for graft dysfunction were performed by multivariate logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results.
There was no early mortality. Two late deaths occurred after 9 and 15 months.
Early postoperative echocardiography revealed bovine jugular vein regurgitation greater than 2+ in 10 patients, all of which had conduit dilatation, had received a 12-mm conduit, and had a right-ventricular-to-left ventricular pressure ratio greater than 0.6. Two additional patients had severe conduit incompetence develop at the 2-year follow-up.
During follow-up, mean gradients increased from 15 to 23 mm Hg (p = 0.03) and stenosis at the distal anastomosis occurred in 25% of patients. Percutaneous interventions were performed in 19 patients (24.4%).
Conduit exchange was required in 10 patients (12.8%) after a mean of 14.9 months for severe graft incompetence ( 8 patients) and progressive supravalvular stenosis ( 2 patients). Freedom from reoperation was 77.6% and 59.3% at 1 and 4 years for patients less than 1 year of age compared with 93.5% and 87.4% for patients older than 1 year of age ( p < 0.001).
Risk factors for reoperation were age less than 1 year, correction of truncus arteriosus, conduit size of 12 mm, and persistently elevated right-ventricular-to-left ventricular pressure ratio greater than 0.6 ( p = 0.001 each). Conclusions.
Bovine jugular vein implantation is associated with low reoperation and acceptable reintervention rate in patients older than 1 year of age. In infants with persistently elevated right ventricular pressure, reoperation rate was high and had to be compared with other established surgical options.