Outcome of heart surgery procedures in octogenarians: is age really not an issue?

Survival rates are a well-known marker for quality performance of a cardiac surgery department, as well as standard of procedures, freedom of reoperation, postoperative complications, length of hospital stay, improvement in New York Heart Association classification and quality of life after surgery. Until recently there has not been any great interest of surgeons in topics concerning the costs of postoperative care, as long as the results were successful. However, satisfactory results after cardiac surgery in aged people require successful procedures, as well as meticulous perioperative care.

Axillary versus femoral cannulation for aortic surgery: enough evidence for a general recommendation?

There is a trend towards cannulation of the axillary artery for extracorporeal circulation in patients requiring aortic arch surgery. We analyzed the published data comparing axillary and femoral cannulation for safety and outcome. End points were death; stroke, neurologic, and vascular complications; and malperfusion.

Successful endothelialization of porcine glutaraldehyde-fixed aortic valves in a heterotopic sheep model.

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the stability of an artificially seeded endothelial cell layer on porcine aortic prostheses under in vivo conditions in the arterial system.

Description: Ten female sheep were divided into two groups. Animals of the study group (n = 7) had dissection of their right external jugular vein for cell harvesting.

An image of mitral valve repair.

Mitral regurgitation is a severe problem of the mitral valve mechanism caused by many factors, including ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy, inflammation, degeneration and others. Regardless of the cause of valve dysfunction, many changes in surgical approach have been undertaken. The pioneering work of Carpentier led to the era of mitral valve reconstruction a few decades ago.

Seeding of human endothelial cells on valve containing aortic mini-roots: development of a seeding device and procedure.

Purpose: Complete covering of an artificial valvular scaffold with endothelial cells may prevent thromboembolic complications and lead to an excellent biocompatibility. For this purpose, we developed a seeding device for reproducible cell seeding on valve containing aortic roots.

Description: Human endothelial cells and fibroblasts were obtained from saphenous vein pieces.

Minimally invasive heart valve surgery: already established in clinical routine?

Cardiac valve replacement with the need for open heart surgery still has the highest morbidity and mortality rates among routine cardiac surgery, with the exception of aortic aneurysm repair and surgery for congenital heart defects. Reducing invasiveness is a desirable goal, and different strategies and approaches have been used to achieve this with valve repair or replacement less invasive. Despite the good results reported with minimally invasive techniques, time on extracorporal circulation is always longer compared with the conventional procedures.

Effects of phospholipid-coated extracorporeal circuits on clinical outcome parameters and systemic inflammatory response in coronary artery bypass graft patients.

Introduction: The use of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is associated with a systemic inflammatory response due to the contact of blood with artificial surfaces. The clinical relevance of ECC-related systemic inflammation varies with the patient, and such inflammation may be accompanied by intermittent organ dysfunction and an increased catecholamine requirement. We investigated the effects of a new phospholipid coating system of ECC on systemic inflammatory response and clinical outcome following CABG.