End-stage
heart failure is associated with high rates of mortality. Obviously,
heart transplantation is the ultimate surgical intervention for its treatment. However, this surgical option is severely limited by immunosuppressive
drug morbidity and inadequate donor organ availability. Partial left ventriculectomy, the so called Batista procedure, has been proposed for the treatment of
dilated cardiomyopathy and other end-stage
heart failure. Although initial reports lacked significant information on the safety and efficacy of this procedure, overall clinical impression from the reports is that the operation may serve as a relatively inexpensive bridge to
transplantation especially in the patients with
idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. In order to select an exact procedure to resect appropriate amount of
scar tissue,
dobutamine echocardiographic study, intraoperative volume reduction test using
cardiopulmonary bypass, positron emission tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging scans can be used. To avoid the late deterioration related to the development of significant
mitral valve regurgitation, definitive mitral valve repair or replacement at the time of the partial left ventriculectomy may be advised. Further study is required to determine the procedure's exact role in the treatment of
congestive heart failure. This would have to be a multicenter, randomized, and long-term follow-up study.