The Thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon
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Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Sep 2014
Outcomes of outpatient treatment for primary spontaneous pneumothorax using a small-bore portable thoracic drainage device.
There is no consensus regarding the initial intervention for primary spontaneous pneumothorax. We report the outcomes of outpatient treatment for primary spontaneous pneumothorax using a portable thoracic drainage device. ⋯ Outpatient treatment for primary spontaneous pneumothorax using a portable thoracic drainage device had a high success rate with few serious complications and an acceptable recurrence rate.
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Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Aug 2014
Hematologic markers better predict left ventricular assist device thrombosis than echocardiographic or pump parameters.
Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) thrombosis is a life-threatening complication that remains a major clinical problem. Consensus diagnostic criteria do not exist. We investigated whether hematologic, echocardiographic, or pump parameters reliably change during LVAD thrombosis. ⋯ Hematological markers of hemolysis, but not echocardiographic or pump parameters, reliably changed during LVAD thrombosis. Markers of hemolysis are the best early predictors of LVAD thrombosis.
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Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jun 2014
Comparative StudyRace and survival among diabetic patients after coronary artery bypass grafting.
Diabetes is a known predictor of decreased long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Differences in survival by race have not been examined. ⋯ A survival disadvantage after CABG was not observed among black versus white diabetic patients in our study.
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Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jun 2014
Comparative StudyClinical performance of the EuroSCORE II compared with the previous EuroSCORE iterations.
The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) II has been recently introduced as an update to the previous versions. We sought to evaluate the predictive performance of the EuroSCORE II model against the original additive and logistic EuroSCORE models. ⋯ The EuroSCORE II might be considered a solid predictive tool for hospital mortality. Although, the EuroSCORE II employs more sophisticated calculation methods regarding the number and definition of risk factors included, it does not seem to significantly improve the performance of previous iterations.