A comparison between the bovine pericardial and Dacron patch in repair of intracardiac defects: the short and mid-term results

Background: In this study, we compared the short- and mid-term clinical and transthoracic echocardiographic results of bovine pericardial and Dacron patch materials used in repair of intracardiac defects. Methods: We compared the short (30 days postoperatively) and mid-term (up to 24 months postoperatively) results of 498 patients with intracardiac defect who underwent surgical correction using Dacron patch (group 1) between March 1993 and December 2003 with 533 patients who received a bovine pericardial patch (group 2) between January 2004 and April 2010. Results: The short- and mid-term postoperative echocardiographic studies showed no evidence of calcification, thrombus, aneurysmal dilatation around the patch in either group. Vegetation-endocarditis developed in three patients in group 1 and two patients in group 2. Residual ventricular septal defect developed in 15 patients in group 1 and in 14 patients in group 2. The incidence of these complications was not statistically significant between the groups. Conclusion: Our study results suggest that bovine pericardial patch is more appropriate in repair of simple and complex intracardiac defects thanks to its elasticity and easy-to-use nature, compared to Dacron patch.