BEATING HEART REPAIR OF POST-INFARCTION VENTRICULAR PSEUDOANEURYSM: A CASE REPORT

Background and Aim: Left Ventricular Pseudoaneurysm (LVPA) is a rare but disastrous complication of myocardial infarction. Urgent surgical repair is required to avoid catastrophic rupture and it’s is necessary in order to exclude the pseudoaneurysm to preserve the LV geometry and function. Beating heart repair can be successfully performed in specific patients. Methods: A 71-years old male patient with a history of systemic hypertension, cigarette smoking, hyoercholesterolemia, peripheral arterial disease, presented with a 48-hours progressive epigastric pain. The diagnosis of anterior STEMI was made and the patient was referred for early coronary angiography, which revealed an occlusion of the left anterior descending artery and a PTCA with a stent implantation was successfully performed. Two days later, the echocardiography showed an apical free wall defect, suspicious of a small LVPA. An MRI confirmed the diagnosis and the patient was admitted to cardiac surgery department. A beating heart repair of the LVPA was performed. A 2-0 Prolene purse-string suture was done at the apex of the left ventricle between the viable myocardium and the infarcted tissues. The exclusion of the pseudoaneurysm was performed using two suture lines (U-shaped single stitches and a continuous 2-0 Prolene suture reinforced by Teflon strips) with the apposition of a bovine pericardial patch. Results: Postoperative echocardiography showed the successful exclusion of the psudoaneurysm, confirmed by a one-month-post- intervention MRI. Conclusions: Beating heart repair of post-infarction left ventricular pseudoaneurysm is a new, feasible and simple approach and provides good short and middle-term results in selected patients.