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Open Cardiovasc Med J. 2008; 2: 1–2.
Published online 2008 January 22. doi: 10.2174/1874192400802010001.
PMCID: PMC2570576
Ventricular Free Wall Rupture: Ten Year Survival After Surgical Repair
Richard A Leff* and Irwin Hoffman*
Lovelace Medical Center, Division of Cardiology, 5400 Gibson Blvd, SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA
*Address correspondence to these authors at the Lovelace Medical Center, Division of Cardiology, 5400 Gibson Blvd, SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA; E-mails: irwin.hoffman/at/stvin.org; raleff/at/gmail.com
Received September 7, 2007; Revised September 21, 2007; Accepted September 27, 2007.
Abstract
Ventricular free wall rupture is a devastating complication of acute myocardial infarction. It occurs in 15-25% of fatal cases. However, the overall incidence in acute MI cases is about 2%. [1] Clinical markers suggesting free wall rupture include pulseless electrical activity in a first MI, and pericardial tamponade. Subacute rupture takes hours or days to develop, and is suggested clinically by pericardial pain, transient hypotension, nausea, restlessness and agitation. [2, 3] When the diagnosis is established by pericardiocentesis or echocardiography, surgical patch repairs are possible, using standard or even sutureless technique. [4] The long term course of survivors of free wall rupture repair has not been extensively reported. There are scattered reports in the literature of survival up to eight years. [5, 3] We report herein a case of a status freewall rupture from an inferior-posterior wall myocardial infarction with survival of ten years after surgical repair. We believe this to be the longest survival thus far reported in the literature.
Keywords: Ventricular rupture, Long term survival, Surgical repair