The Annals of thoracic surgery
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To determine the factors that influence hospital death and neurologic complications after surgery on the thoracic aorta using circulatory arrest and antegrade selective cerebral perfusion. ⋯ Hospital mortality is affected significantly by the choice of technique used for antegrade cerebral perfusion. The incidence of both temporary and permanent postoperative central neurologic damage is influenced by preoperative hemodynamic instability. Duration of cerebral perfusion had no influence on the postoperative neurologic outcome.
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With increasing clinical experience, it has become clear that two distinct forms of neurological injury occur after operations on the thoracic aorta that require temporary exclusion of the cerebral circulation. Traditionally, evaluation of neurological outcome was limited to reporting the incidence of postoperative stroke related to ischemic infarcts due to particulate embolization. More recently, the symptom complex defined as "temporary neurological dysfunction" (TND) was recognized as a functional manifestation of subtle and presumably transient brain injury, but whether this early postoperative syndrome is associated with long-term deficits of cognitive and intellectual functions has not been established. ⋯ The incidence and severity of clinically apparent temporary neurological dysfunction correlates significantly with poor performance on neuropsychological tests 1 week postoperatively. Such poor performance predicts continued deficits in memory and motor function at 6 weeks. Thus, TND may not be a benign self-limited condition as previously supposed, but rather a clinical marker for insidious but significant neurological injury associated with measurable long-term deficits in cerebral function. A concerted effort to reduce the incidence of this complication is therefore necessary.
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The establishment of hemostasis without the excessive transfusion of homologous blood and blood products is critical to successful aortic surgery. ⋯ The strategy described is safe: our overall survival rate for 204 patients has been 98%, with a 1% incidence of stroke.
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Inversion of the left atrial appendage can masquerade as a new left atrial mass. Failure to be aware of this entity can result in unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. If the entity is diagnosed intraoperatively, treatment is simple with external reduction and ligation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
A prospective randomized trial of Duraflo II heparin-coated circuits in cardiac reoperations.
Heparin-coated circuits in cardiopulmonary bypass have been shown to decrease the systemic inflammatory responses associated with cardiopulmonary bypass. Previous clinical studies on low-risk patients who had coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and received full-dose systemic heparin did not have clearly improved clinical outcomes. We hypothesized that the beneficial effects of heparin-coated circuits might be seen in patients who had cardiac reoperations. ⋯ We conclude that the use of heparin-coated circuits was safe and imparted protection from reoperations for bleeding and major bleeding episodes. Material-independent blood activation (eg, blood-air interface and cardiotomy suction) blunted the total effect of the heparin-coated surface.