Articles: postoperative-complications.
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Biological psychiatry · Dec 1976
Analogy tests and psychopathology at follow-up after open heart surgery.
A study of 100 coronary bypass and cardiac valvular surgery patients investigated whether preoperative brain damage, as measured by the Conceptual Level Analogy Test (CLAT), is a major risk factor for postoperative psychiatric symptoms and mortality. Three cognitive psychological tests, including the CLAT, and psychatric interviews were given preoperatively, postoperatively, and at 18-month follow-up. ⋯ However, long-term outcome was unrelated to medical diagnosis and only weakly related to surgical procedure, but highly significantly related to preoperative analogy scores. The CLAT was a more consistent predictor of both short- and long-term outcome than any of the other ten variables considered (medical and surgical variables, inhospital outcome, demographic measures, other psychological tests).
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British heart journal · Dec 1976
Closure of pericardium after open heart surgery. A way to prevent postoperative cardiac tamponade.
Between July 1968 and December 1975, 821 patients underwent open heart operations. In 596 cases the pericardium was left open and in 225 the pericardium was closed. Forty-one patients in the open pericardium group required reoperation and 23 of these had tamponade. ⋯ Absence of tamponade in the closed pericardium group can be explained by the fact that blood from extrapericardial sources of bleeding cannot collect round the heart because the pericardium is closed. Thus closure of pericardium helps to prevent tamponade. Reoperations some months or years after the original operation are technically easier and less hazardous if the pericardium has been closed because the closed pericardium prevents the heart from becoming adherent to the back of sternum and also because there are fewer adhesions in the pericardial cavity.