The Annals of thoracic surgery
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An autotransfusion technique has been developed for collection and reinfusion of shed mediastinal blood. This system has been routinely applied in the postoperative management of 592 consecutive adult and 108 pediatric cardiac surgical patients. Two hundred seventy-one adult patients (46%) and thirty-six pediatric patients (33%) actually received autologous blood. ⋯ In 1976 at our institution, homologous transfusion requirements averaged 8.4 +/- 0.7 units per adult patient. During 1978, with the routine use of postoperative autotransfusion, bank blood transfusions were lowered to 4.2 +/- 0.3 units per patient (p less than 0.001). In contrast to perioperative autotransfusion techniques, collection and reinfusion of shed mediastinal blood is particularly useful for intravascular volume replacement in patients with serious postoperative bleeding.
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Between 1967 and 1978, an 11-year-old boy had undergone 3 separate systemic-pulmonary artery shunt operations. Two of the 3 shunt operations failed. ⋯ Repair was successfully accomplished with the use of an internal vascular conduit and an external vascular conduit with a glutaraldehyde-treated porcine valve. Four months after the corrective procedure, the patient's exercise tolerance had improved dramatically.
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Ten patients underwent an aortapulmonary artery shunt with a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tube between December, 1976, and October, 1977. Five of them were less than 1 month old. The diameter of the PTFE tube was 5 mm in 9 patients and 4 mm in 1 patient. ⋯ In our institution, the Blalock-Taussig shunt is the procedure of choice. The PTFE shunt is used when the anatomy of a patient is unsuitable for a Blalock-Taussig shunt. A tube diameter of 5 mm is optimal for infants when further growth is considered, even if digitalization is necessary to control congestive heart failure.
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"Reperfusion syndrome" of the lung may play a role in the pulmonary edema and hemorrhage that occur following pulmonary embolectomy, cardiopulmonary bypass, and shock. Bioenergetic, metabolic, and ultrastructural studies of canine lungs indicate that ventilated lung tissue could tolerate 5 hours of pulmonary arterial occlusion with minimal damage. ⋯ Reperfusion of these lungs resulted in even more pronounced biochemical and ultrastructural deterioration, as well as gross pulmonary edema and hemorrhage. The lesion appears to be similar to the reperfusion damage that occurs in other organs, such as the kidney, and the skeletal and cardiac muscles.