The Annals of thoracic surgery
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
The no-touch saphenous vein as the preferred second conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting.
Injury incurred while saphenous veins are being obtained results in poor graft patency and impairs the results of coronary artery bypass grafting. A novel method of obtaining veins, the no-touch technique, has shown improved long-term saphenous vein graft patency. ⋯ No-touch saphenous vein grafts showed a significantly higher patency rate than the radial artery grafts and the patency was comparable to the patency for left internal thoracic artery grafts. This highlights the improvement in saphenous vein graft quality with the no-touch technique and increases the number of situations in which saphenous veins may be preferable to radial artery grafts as conduits in coronary artery bypass grafting.
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Comparative Study
Hypoxemia during one-lung ventilation for robot-assisted coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Robot-assisted coronary artery bypass grafting requires continuous one-lung ventilation (OLV) to evacuate the thoracic cavity. Whether this ventilatory mode subjects patients to serious hypoxemia remains underinvestigated. ⋯ Robot-assisted two-stage coronary artery bypass surgery employing OLV could be complicated by serious hypoxemia especially at the minithoracotomy grafting stage and in patients with specific risk factors. Thus, when managing such patients, invasive monitoring and aggressive treatment of arterial desaturation are mandatory to ensure the patient's safety and procedural smoothness.
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Case Reports
Diaphragmatic and intercostal muscle tear after an episode of violent sneezing: spontaneous diaphragmatic injury.
Spontaneous diaphragmatic injuries are rare, accounting for approximately 1% of all diaphragmatic injuries. We report a case of a 69-year-old male with a concurrent lower respiratory tract infection who sustained diaphragmatic and intercostal muscle injuries after an episode of violent sneezing. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of spontaneous diaphragmatic injury after sneezing.
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Review Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Blood transfusion and infection after cardiac surgery.
Cardiac surgery is the largest consumer of blood products in medicine; although believed life saving, transfusion carries substantial adverse risks. This study characterizes the relationship between transfusion and risk of major infection after cardiac surgery. In all, 5,158 adults were prospectively enrolled to assess infections after cardiac surgery. ⋯ Risk factors for infection included postoperative RBC units transfused, longer duration of surgery, and transplant or ventricular assist device implantation, in addition to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, and elevated preoperative creatinine. Platelet transfusion decreased the risk of infection (p = 0.02). Greater attention to management practices that limit RBC use, including cell salvage, small priming volumes, vacuum-assisted venous return with rapid autologous priming, and ultrafiltration, and preoperative and intraoperative measures to elevate hematocrit could potentially reduce occurrence of major postoperative infections.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Methylprednisolone in neonatal cardiac surgery: reduced inflammation without improved clinical outcome.
Corticosteroids are widely used in pediatric open-heart surgery to reduce systemic inflammatory response and to mediate possible cardioprotective effects. However, the optimal dosing of corticosteroids is unknown and their administration varies considerably between different institutions. ⋯ Intravenous 30 mg/kg methylprednisolone administered before cardiopulmonary bypass resulted in high effective plasma drug concentrations and a decreased inflammatory response. However, no cardioprotective effect or better clinical outcome was noticed.