Vacuum assisted venous return(VAVR) in patients undergoing mitral valve replacement with minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Abstract

We have adopted Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery(MICS) through partial sternotomy since July 1997. Eighty two patients underwent mitral valve replacement with the MICS technique. Some patients needed a vacuum assisted venous return method(VAVR) to institute the extracorporeal circulation, because of the small operation field and thinner drainage tubes. We compared perioperative data in patients with and without VAVR, which was employed according to the three Committee guideline in MICS in Japan. The mortality rate was 2.4% and the cause of death was thromboembolism. There were no significant differences between the VAVR group and the non-VAVR group in intraoperative and postoperative factors. There was high frequency of usage of VAVR system in patients over 1.5m² body surface area.