Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a predominant health concern in developing countries.The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the outcomes of mitral valve (MV) repair in patients with RHD, and identify predictors that may postoperatively affect treatment outcome. Methods: A meta-analysis of eligible studies assessing patients undergoing MV repair with RHD and reporting the outcomes of MV repair, including 30-day mortality and long-term follow-up survival, MV reoperation rate and postoperative adverse events. Relevant English articles were searched up to 1 March, 2017 in Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, EmBase, Elsevier, and Science Direct.Selected studies should meet all inclusion criteria, and underwent data extraction. Results: A total of ten studies with 2,770 patients met all inclusion criteria, and were selected for assessment. Pooled analysis showed that 30-day mortality in patients with rheumatic MV disease after MV repair surgery was 1.9%, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.8-2.9%); long-term survival was 97.3%, 95% CI (95.9-98.6%), and a freedom from reoperation rate of 93.6%, 95% CI (91.4-95.9%) was obtained; freedom from adverse events was 97.5%, 95% CI (95.2-99.8%). Conclusions:The outcome of rheumatic MV repair is outstanding in terms of low early mortality, high long-term survival and freedom from valve-related complications, which may be very common in patients after rheumatic MV replacement; meanwhile, MV reoperation rate after initial surgery is acceptable. Surgeons may try to repair MV in RHD when it is feasibleKeywords: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD); mitral valve (MV) repair; outcomes; meta-analysis J Thorac Dis 2017;9(11):4366-4375 jtd.amegroups.com feasibility of MV repair for RHD patients is extremely low. However, other studies (3,4) believed that MV replacement may not be the most optimal surgical treatment for such patients, demonstrating the advantages of MV repair over replacement in terms of low rate of early mortality, better late survival, preservation of left ventricular function, and reduced anticoagulant-related complications. Here, we systematically reviewed published literature and performed a meta-analysis which assessed the outcomes of MV repair in patients with RHD, exploring predictive factors that may postoperatively affect treatment outcome. Methods Literature searchWeb of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, EmBase, Elsevier, and ScienceDirect were independently searched by two authors (JT Fu, MS Popal) for potentially relevant studies which analyzed the outcomes of MV repair for rheumatic MV disease, up to 1 March, 2017. The following key terms were used either alone or in combination: "rheumatic heart disease", "RHD", "mitral valve repair", "MVP", "mitral valve reconstruction", and "mitral valve surgery". Some references in relevant studies were hand searched for additional articles which could not be identified by the advanced search. Selection criteriaThe inclusion criteria were: (I) directly analysis of MV repair...

Patients with lone AF with a large preoperative left atrial diameter and long AF duration will not be suitable for video-assisted pulmonary vein isolation alone and might need to undergo ablation of the lesions.

Treatment with gypenosides exerts protective effects on retinal nerve fibers and axons in EAON. When combined with gypenosides, methylprednisolone reduces demyelination in the acute stage of EAON.

Patients with mild or no TR undergoing left-sided valve surgery, intraoperative measurement of the TAC proved to be an ideal method to judge the tricuspid-annulus, it is capable to predict TR-progression. For prophylactic tricuspid repair a presumed TACI of 80.2 mm/m is recommended as an indicative threshold.