In general strategy for postcardiotomy heart failure includes inotropic support followed by the use of an intra-aortic balloon pump and percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass support (POPS). The insertion of a ventricular assist system (VAS) may become necessary when these procedures fail to restore hemodynamic stability. The ABIOMED BVS 5000 left ventricular assist support system (LVAS) has been approved for clinical use in Japan since 1998. Here we describe our experience with the recovery of a 52-year-old man from postcardiotomy heart failure after using an ABIOMED BVS 5000 LVAS. The patient was admitted to our institution with dyspnea. Heart failure with severe left ventricular dysfunction was diagnosed, and recent myocardial infarction was suspected from his history and electrocardiogram. Two days after admission, ventricular fibrillation occured and the arrythmia was hard to control. PCPS was connected and emergency coronary angiography showed triple vessel disease. We performed emergency coronary artery bypass grafting with the heart beating under PCPS and immediately implanted an ABIOMED BVS 5000 device to achieve myocardial recovery after stopping PCPS. He was weaned from the LVAS at 6 days after surgery. His postoperative course was relatively uneventful and he was discharged after recovery.

Papillary muscle rupture after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an infrequent but fatal complication. We report a case of mitral valve repair performed in a patient with partial papillary muscle rupture after AMI. An 85-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for AMI with cardiac shock. Emergency coronary angiography revealed triple-vessel disease, and percutaneous coronary intervention for the culprit lesion of the left circumflex artery was successfully performed. Eleven days after the onset of the AMI, the pulmonary artery pressure abruptly increased to 60 mmHg and a pansystolic murmur was detected. Transesophageal echocardiography showed severe mitral regurgitation (MR) with flail in the A1—A2 region of the anterior mitral leaflet. We demonstrated erratic motion of the ruptured anterior head in the left ventricle, and this was diagnosed as partial rupture of the posterior papillary muscle. Intra-aortic balloon pumping (IABP) was performed to maintain the systemic circulation. Four days after the onset of acute MR (15 days following AMI), we performed mitral valve repair with coronary artery bypass grafting. We reattached the ruptured head to the viable posterior head with pledget sutures and performed annuloplasty using Carpentier-Edwards classical ring M28. Postoperative echocardiography showed no MR, and the patient was uneventfully discharged on the 45th postoperative day.

A 79-year-old man developed congestive heart failure. He was given a diagnosis of severe mitral regurgitation with calcification of the posterior mitral annulus and secondary tricuspid regurgitation. He had a history of esophageal resection with retrosternal gastric tube reconstruction about 20 years previously. We replaced the mitral valve with a mechanical prosthesis and performed tricuspid ring annuloplasty through a right parasternal approach. We did not risk resecting the calcified annulus, but fixed the prosthesis and annulus with the equine pericardium in between as a cushion and collar, to prevent perivalvular leakage. The postoperative course was uneventful.