Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of minimally invasive surgery in patients with late severe tricuspid regurgitation after cardiac surgery, and to evaluate the role of leaflets augmentation technique in tricuspid valvuloplasty. Methods: From January 2015 to June 2019, 85 patients undergoing tricuspid valve repair procedure with minimally invasive approach at Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Guangdong provincial People′s Hospital were enrolled. There were 22 males and 63 females, aging of (53.6±12.4) years (range: 15 to 75 years). The interval between the prior and current operations was (16.0±7.3) years (range: 0.2 to 35.0 years). The diameter of right atrium and right ventricle was (77.3±17.2) mm and (61.0±8.4) mm, respectively. Tricuspid regurgitation was severe or extremely severe, the tricuspid regurgitation area was (19.0±10.3) cm². All patients underwent minimally invasive tricuspid valvuloplasty or tricuspid valve replacement on beating-heart with totally endoscopic technique and port-access approach through right chest wall. The operations included tricuspid valve replacement and tricuspid valvuloplasty, the technique of tricuspid valvuloplasty including leaflets augmentation with patch, ring implantation, chordae tendineaes reconstruction, release of papillary muscle, edge to edge method, etc. Postoperative hospitalization days, the time of ICU stay, blood transfusion rate, ventilator time and the results of echocardiography were recorded. Follow-up was completed regularly by WeChat, telephone and outpatient visit. Results: Sixty-five patients underwent tricuspid valve repair, and 20 patients underwent tricuspid valve replacement because of prosthetic failure and plasty failure. Five patients died during hospitalization, with mortality rate 5.9%. One patient was transferred to local hospital for anti-infection treatment, the other 79 patients were discharged from hospital in well condition and followed-up. The postoperative hospitalization time was 7.0 (5.5) days (M(Q_R)) days, the mean ventilator time was 18.0 (16.2) hours, and the mean ICU stay time was 68.0 (75.5) hours. There were 35 patients without blood conduction transfusion, the transfusion rate was only 58.9% (50/85). Four cases of severe, 9 cases of moderate and 67 cases of mild to zero tricuspid regurgitation were examined before being discharged, with tricuspid regurgitation area of (2.8±3.5) cm² (range: 0 to 19.1 cm²). The follow-up time was 1 to 38 months. Two patients died during follow-up, one patient died from infective endocarditis and mitral perivalvular leakage, the other one died of intractable right heart failure. One patient was implanted with permanent pacemaker due to Ⅲ atrioventricular block. Valvular re-replacement was performed in 2 patients who were re-admitted for the artificial valve infection and mechanical valve obstruction. No re-operation of tricuspid valve. Conclusions Totally endoscopic minimally invasive technique provided satisfactory surgical outcomes for critically sick patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation following cardiac surgery. The application of leaflets augmentation technique achieved ideal repair effect for previously unrepairable lesions.

Objective To investigate the association between the value of α-thalassemia minor and the outcomes in pregnant women.Methods A total of 445 pregnant women with α-thalassemia minor were selected as thalassemia group in the Pingguo County Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Guangxi from January 2011 to December 2015,with ratio of 1 ∶ 4 healthy pregnant women was randomly recruited as non-thalassemia group.Clinical characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of the two groups were retrospectively analyzed using methods including t test,x2 test,and logistic regression model and ROC curve.Results There were no significant differences noticed in factors as age,BMI,gestational age and educational level of the two groups.Hemoglobin of the thalassemia group was significantly lower than that of the non-thalassemia group (P＜0.001).Differences on parity,ethnicities or occupation were statistically significant.Results from univariate analysis showed that the proportions of low birth weight,small for date infant and 1 min Apgar score ＜7 were higher in the thalassemia group,but the ratio of adverse pregnancy outcomes was comparable on parameters as preterm birth,stillbirth,macrosomia.Findings from the unconditional logistic regression showed that pregnancy complicated with α-thalassemia minor appeared a risk for both newboms with low birth weight (aOR=2.29,95％CI:1.32-3.95) and small for date infant (aOR=2.11,95％ CI:1.16-3.84).The ROC curve showed that α-thalassemia minor combined with multiple indicators presented a certain predictive value on neonatal birth weight.Conclusion Pregnancy complicated with α-thalassemia minor was likely to increase the risk of birth weight loss in newborns,suggesting that prenatal care for pregnant women with thalassemia be strengthened,in order to reduce the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes.