Annals of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery : official journal of the Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia
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Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jan 2014
Case ReportsVideo-assisted thoracoscopic resection of fractured ribs to prevent descending aorta injury in patient with chest trauma.
Blunt chest trauma frequently leads to various complications such as pneumothorax, hemothorax, and lung contusion. Since neighboring organ injury caused by a rib fracture with chest trauma could be fatal when a great vessel is involved, immediate diagnosis and treatment including surgery are important. Here, we present a case of chest trauma, in which we performed video-assisted thoracoscopic rib resection to prevent injury to the descending aorta by the fractured rib tip.
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Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jan 2014
Paravertebral block as a promising analgesic modality for managing post-thoracotomy pain.
Analgesia following thoracotomy is routinely accomplished using epidural blockage performed by anesthesiologists. More effective pain control can be achieved with continuous paravertebral blockage performed by thoracic surgeons. We aimed to retrospectively analyze the efficacy of paravertebral blockage for managing post-thoracotomy pain. ⋯ Adequate post-thoracotomy pain control was accomplished by continuous paravertebral blockage, with few complications.
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Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jan 2014
Case ReportsThe importance of interleaflet triangles for aortic valve competence in a marfan patient with dilated aortic sinuses.
We report a case of advanced aortic sinus aneurysm without the aggravation of aortic valve regurgitation after a simple reduction procedure for dilated aortic root base and sinotubular junction (STJ) in a Marfan patient with annuloaortic ectasia and severe aortic valve regurgitation. The aortic valve competence was well preserved by limited change of distances among the interleaflet triangles after reduction of the dilated aortic root base and STJ in the Marfan patient, although the sinus dilatation was aggravated.
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Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jan 2014
Impact of smoking history on postoperative pulmonary complications: a review of recent lung cancer patients.
Smoking is a well-known risk factor for postoperative pulmonary complications. As a consequence of pre and postoperative procedures continuing to be developed, postoperative complications continue to decrease. In this study, smoking as a risk factor for postoperative pulmonary complications is studied. ⋯ Recently, the effect of smoking on the development of postoperative pulmonary complications has been reduced due to the increase in quality of pre and postoperative management and surgery procedures. Accordingly, there seems to be no need to delay operative procedures to secure a significant duration of smoking cessation duration in lung cancer patients.
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Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Jan 2014
Case ReportsMalignant pleural mesothelioma presenting as acute empyema with severe leukocytosis.
Five months after the treatment for acute empyema, a 75-year-old woman was referred to our hospital because of marked elevation of the white blood cell (WBC) count and C-reactive protein (CRP) level, and a right pleural mass detected by chest computed tomography. At this time, the WBC count and CRP level had increased to 60400/microl and 18.2 mg/dl, respectively. ⋯ Malignant pleural mesothelioma occasionally presents the symptoms and findings like an acute empyema. We demonstrated the case of malignant pleural mesothelioma which had presented the symptoms and laboratory findings very similar to acute empyema and had treated as acute empyema.