2021 Volume 50 Issue 1 Pages 1-i-1-viii
Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) has been a lethal complication after acute myocardial infarction. It occurs mostly within one week following onset of myocardial infarction. Medical managements and percutaneous defect closure are still of limited value. Surgical closure of VSR has been developed since the first report in 1957, however the recent STS database reported high surgical mortality of 54.2% in cases within 7 days following onset of myocardial infarction. Posterior VSR has been reported worse surgical mortality than anterior VSR. A novel procedure, the extended sandwich patch (ESP) method via the right ventricle (RV) incision was proposed and developed for overcoming these weaknesses. ESP method starts with the incision close to the culprit artery and the left ventricle (LV) is reached through the defect. After sufficient debridement of the necrotic myocardium, an octagonal fabric patch sized 6 centimeter is introduced into the LV. About eight transmural anchoring sutures are placed inside-out. The second fabric patch is placed on the RV septum and felt pledgetts on the free wall of LV. Before the final closure of the ESP, glue is placed into the defect. The RV incision is then simply closed. Low mortality and least the shunt recurrence were reported by our group. This life-saving procedure seems promising to employ for VSR closure even in cases within 7 days following onset of myocardial infarction or in the posterior type. To improve clinical outcomes of VSR, it is crucial to perform VSR closure with the secure method prior to developing multi-organ failure due to the deteriorating heart failure.
