Pericardial Substitutes: A Survey

William H. Heydorn, Victor A. Ferraris, William R. Berry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many thoracic surgeons have used pericardial substitutes to reduce the risk of reoperation, but there have been few reports of these procedures. Therefore, we used a questionnaire to gather information on experience with use of pericardial substitutes and to document the findings at reoperation. A six-question survey was sent to 2,344 members of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, requesting surgeons to list their experience with pericardial substitutes and at reoperation in patients with these substitutes in place. Of the 634 surgeons who responded to the survey, 120 reported the insertion of 3,828 pericardial substitutes. Two hundred thirty-six reoperations were reported by 89 surgeons. None of the pericardial substitutes was reported to be completely successful in facilitating reoperation. The experience with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) pericardial substitutes was reported to be significantly more satisfactory than that with all other substitutes (p = 0.0004 by chi-square analysis), but 14% of surgeons who used PTFE said they were dissatisfied at reoperation. Based on the results of this survey, we suggest caution, careful documentation, and long-term follow-up studies before widespread use of pericardial substitutes can be recommended.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)567-569
Number of pages3
JournalAnnals of Thoracic Surgery
Volume46
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1988

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Surgery
  • Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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