Objective: In a population of patients undergoing cardiac surgery for rheumatic mitral valve disease, evaluate the impact of preoperative PH on early surgical mortality.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort carried out from January 1, 2017 to December 30, 2020. All patients over 18 years of age who underwent cardiac surgery to correct rheumatic mitral valve disease with functional tricuspid regurgitation in an echocardiogram performed up to 6 months before surgery were included. Systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) value was also defined by preoperative echocardiogram evaluation. The primary outcome was surgical mortality.

Results: 144 patients were included. The mean age was 46.2 (±12.3) years with 107 (74.3%) female individuals, the median left ventricular ejection fraction was 61.0% (55 - 67) and sPAP was 55.0 mmHg (46 - 74), with 45 (31.3%) individuals with right ventricular dysfunction. The predominant valve disease was mitral stenosis (74.3%). The prevalence of severe tricuspid regurgitation was 47.2%. The total in-hospital mortality was 15 (10.4%) individuals. sPAP was independently associated with early surgical death RR 1.04 (1.01 – 1.07), p = 0.003. To determine a sPAP cut-off that indicates higher mortality and help decision making in clinical practice, we performed an analysis through the ROC curve (area 0.70, p=0.012). The estimated value of 73.5mmHg has the highest accuracy in our model for predicting early mortality.

Conclusion: In patients with rheumatic heart disease who will undergo mitral valve surgery, pulmonary hypertension is associated with higher early mortality. Values above 73.5 mmHg predict higher risk and, in this part of the population, additional measures to control intraoperative and immediate postoperative pulmonary hypertension should be considered.