Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Aug 2009
Case ReportsPost-thoracotomy Horner syndrome associated with extrapleural infusion of local anesthetic.
Continuous incisional infusion of local anesthetic through an extrapleural catheter to achieve an intercostal nerve block is a safe and effective adjunct to control postoperative pain after thoracotomy. Local and systemic complications are rare. Here we present a case of an acute, reversible, post-thoracotomy Horner syndrome associated with the use of local anesthetic infusion via an intraoperatively placed extrapleural catheter.
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Aug 2009
Case ReportsTriple heart valve surgery through a right antero-lateral minithoracotomy.
Triple valve surgery remains a complex intervention, with prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and cross-clamp times. A median sternotomy is the standard approach in the surgical treatment of multiple valve disease. In this report, we attempt to describe our approach for the correction of the triple heart valve disease through a right antero-lateral minithoracotomy, because avoiding sternotomy can bring less wound infections, faster recovery and a shorter hospital stay. The right minithoracotomy in the 3rd intercostal space was applied in two patients and a feasibility of either repair or replacement with a good field exposure to access the aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves without any particular difficulties was verified.
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Aug 2009
Clinical significance of pleural lavage cytology for non-small cell lung cancer: is surgical resection valid for patients with positive pleural lavage cytology?
The purpose of the present study was to retrospectively analyze the clinicopathological characteristics and clarify the validity of surgical resection for patients with positive pleural lavage cytology (PLC). Between 1993 and 2006, 563 patients who underwent complete surgical resection for primary non-small cell lung cancer and who were examined with regard to PLC were retrospectively analyzed. Forty-two patients (7.2%) showed positive PLC. ⋯ Intrathoracic recurrence was observed more frequently in patients with positive PLC. PLC was an independent prognostic factor. While positive PLC alone may not be a contraindication for surgical resection, patients who are complicated with a high CEA level preoperatively should receive special attention since no long-term survivors were observed.
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Aug 2009
How to replace an extracorporeal life support without interruption of the cardiopulmonary assistance.
The extracorporeal life support (ECLS) allows a maximum of a few weeks of cardio-respiratory assistance. Using standard ECLS, the circuit must be replaced after a few days or sometimes more frequently, in case of dysfunction. Classically, the replacement needs the interruption of the support inducing a temporarily hemodynamic instability. ⋯ We describe the original modification, the complete procedure and our results. This method has been used in 34 ECLS replacements in 14 patients without any incident or thrombo-embolic events. This simple technique is safe, reliable, and avoids the hemodynamic instability induced by classical replacements.
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Aug 2009
Efficacy of emergent percutaneous cardiopulmonary support in cardiac or respiratory failure: fight or flight?
We retrospectively evaluated early outcome and conducted this study to determine the predictive factors for percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS) weaning and hospital discharge. From January 2004 to December 2006, 92 patients diagnosed as cardiac or respiratory failure underwent PCPS using the Capiox emergent bypass system (Terumo, Tokyo, Japan). The mean+/-S. ⋯ PCPS provides an acceptable survival rate and outcome in patients with cardiac or respiratory failure. Prompt application and selection of patients with a specific disease (myocarditis) provides good results. It is also effective in elderly patients, providing hospital survival similar to that for younger patients.