Dynamic cardiomyplasty has been proposed as an alternative surgical treatment for severe cardiomyopathies. From May 1988 to October 1990, dynamic cardiomyoplasty was performed in 16 patients with dilated or chagasic cardiomyopathy at the Heart Institute. Ten patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III and six in Class IV. There were no operative deaths. During a men follow-up of 16.9 ± 2.5 months, the actuarial survival was 74% at 1 year and 64.8% at 2 years of follow-up. This survival was influenced by the worse evolution of patients with left ventricular internal diameter more than 80 mm. These results were, however, better than the survival of 39.5 and 29.6%, presented at the same periods, respectively, by 20 patients maintained under medical therapy. Five of the 11 surviving patients in cardiomyoplasty group are in NYHA Class I and six in Class II. At 6 months of follow-up, radioisotopic left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction increased from 20.1 ± 3.8 to 26 ± 7.8% (p < 0.01). Doppler-echocardiography demonstrated that LV segmental wall shortening improved from 12 ± 3.1 to 17.8 ± 2.3% (p < 0.01), while LV stroke volume increased from 23.6 ± 5.2 to 32.3 ± 7.9 ml (p < 0.01). Similar increases in cardiac index, associated with decreases in pulmonary artery and wedge pressures, were also demonstrated by cardiac catheterization. Cardiopulmonary exercise test showed the improvement of maximal oxygen consumption from 14,9 ± 3.9 to 18.2 ± 3.4 ml/kg/min (p < 0.05). One year and 18 months after the cardiomyoplasty, these data remained essentially unchanged. In conclusion, dynamic cardiomyoplasty improves left ventricular function, reverses congestive heart failure and may improve survival of patiens with dilated cardiomyopathies. Factors as the existence of severe left ventricular dilation may, however, limited the late results of this procedure.
cardiomyoplasty; cardiomyopathies