Surgery for Left Ventricular Aneurysm

Left ventricular aneurysm (LVA) is a rare yet serious complication of myocardial infarction. Though LVA occasionally occurs in congenital, infective, connective tissue and traumatic heart disease, myocardial infarction remains the most frequent cause. The main therapeutic option for LVA is surgery; however, the best surgical technique (linear vs. patch closure) is still controversial. This book presents a retrospective study of thirty six true post myocardial infarction LVAs managed surgically in 3 Iraqi cardiac surgical centers over 12 years with a literature review. Patch ventriculoplasty was the most frequently employed technique while myocardial revascularization rate exceeded 90%. The study is a preliminary work on this disease in Iraq hopefully it would be followed by others with longer follow-up. Despite the small number of patients and the low ejection fraction in most of them, the short-term outcome was good and close to the international standard. We share many other authors their belief that reconstruction of LVA should be combined with myocardial revascularization particularly in the presence of graftable left anterior descending artery following repair.