Implications of left ventricular mass index on early postoperative outcome in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement

To study the prognostic influence of the preoperative left ventricular mass index (LVMI) on early postoperative outcome in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement (AVR). We studied 61 patients (41 males and 20 females) who underwent elective AVR for isolated or mixed aortic valve lesions. LVMI was calculated by trans-thoracic echocardiography in all patients. We classified our patients into two groups: group 1 patients had increased LVMI (>134 g/m2 in males and >110 g/m2 in females) and group 2 patients who had normal LVMI. Aortic valve replacement was done in all patients. We found 48 (age 28.4 ± 12 years) patients with increased LVMI (group 1) and 13 (age 27.2 ± 12 years) with normal LVMI (group 2). There was significantly increase in the need of prolonged use of inotropic support (62.5% versus 31%, P value = 0.041), intensive care unit (ICU) stay and post-operative hospital stay (4.02 ± 2.1 versus 2.3 ± 1.8 days, P value = 0.011 and 8.4 ± 2.4 versus 6.6 ± 2.8 days, 0.025 respectively) in group 1 compared with group 2. The occurrence of post operative ventricular arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation (AF) was higher in group 1 but still statistically insignificant. During post operative period two patients died in group 1 and one patient in group 2. The increase of LVMI values is associated with increased in-hospital morbidity in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement.