The Annals of thoracic surgery
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To summarize this rather wide-ranging study, let us review the high points. The future practice of thoracic surgery will be increasingly affected by governmental factors and will have even greater technological dimensions. To do this work, we must continue to attract high-caliber individuals, and this is best accomplished by the early and continuing involvement in the educational process of strong role models from our field. ⋯ Likewise, although the accreditation process must protect the resident from exploitation, it must not be so restrictive that it does not allow for educational innovation and justifiable differences among programs. These are the thoughtful opinions of our colleagues. They deserve serious consideration.
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Rupture of cardiac chambers after nonpenetrating blunt thoracic trauma is being recognized with increasing frequency. Despite a high mortality rate, survival after repair of a single-chamber rupture is widely reported. Bichamber cardiac rupture is less frequent, and we report a patient who survived this injury.
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Over a 12-year period, 40 patients underwent repair of partial anomalous pulmonary veins (PAPV) draining to the superior vena cava (SVC) proximal to the sinus node. Mean age was 6 +/- 2 years. In all patients, the SVC was cannulated superior to the PAPV, which were baffled with pericardium to left atrium. ⋯ Obstruction of the SVC and PAPV developed in 1 patient in group II with high drainage. Intermittent complete heart block developed in 1 patient in group III who also had ventricular septal defect repair. We conclude that atriocavoplasty is effective for rerouting of the PAPV and enlarging the SVC, but may predispose to sinus node disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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The pH management that provides optimal organ protection during hypothermic circulatory arrest is uncertain. Recent retrospective clinical data suggest that the pH-stat strategy (maintenance of pH at 7.40 corrected to core temperature) may improve brain protection during hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with a period of circulatory arrest in infants. The impact of alpha-stat (group A) and pH-stat (group P) strategies on recovery of cerebral high-energy phosphates and intracellular pH measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (A, n = 7; P, n = 5), organ blood flow measured by microspheres, cerebral metabolic rate measured by oxygen and glucose extraction (A, n = 7; P, n = 6), and cerebral edema was studied in 25 4-week-old piglets undergoing core cooling and 1 hour of circulatory arrest at 15 degrees C. ⋯ Brain water content postoperatively was less in group P (0.8075) than in group A (0.8124) (p = 0.05). These results suggest that compared with alpha-stat, the pH-stat strategy provides better early brain recovery after deep hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with circulatory arrest in the immature animal. Possible mechanisms include improved brain cooling by increased blood flow to subcortical areas, improved oxygen delivery, and reduction of reperfusion injury, as well as an alkaline shift in intracellular pH with hypothermia in spite of a stable blood pH.
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Gastrointestinal damage occurs in 0.6% to 2% of patients after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and carries a mortality of 12% to 67%. The incidence of subclinical gastrointestinal damage may be much greater. We examined the effects of nonpulsatile, hypothermic CPB on intestinal absorption and permeability in 41 patients. ⋯ The permeation of 3-O-methyl-D-glucose and D-xylose returned to normal levels 5 days after CPB, but that of L-rhamnose remained significantly below pre-CPB values at 6.6% +/- 0.5% (p = 0.004). However, the permeation of lactulose increased after CPB (from 0.35% +/- 0.04% to 0.59% +/- 0.1%; p = 0.018), and the lactulose/L-rhamnose gut permeability ratio increased markedly (from 0.045 +/- 0.04 to 0.36 +/- 0.08; normal = 0.06 to 0.08; p = 0.004). Patients who had a CPB time of 100 minutes or more had a greater increase in gut permeability (p = 0.049).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)