Does the experience of the endoscopic vein harvester matter to the quality of the vein conduit: A critical thematic literature review.

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery remains the golden standard surgical option for multiple vessel disease. Harvesting the long saphenous vein using endoscopic vein harvesting requires advanced surgical skills dexterity, but the lack of a national standardised training programme allows for variance in the learning curve and the quality of the vein during the learning cycle is unknown. A search of bibliographic databases: CINHAL Plus, Embase, Pubmed and the Cochrane register for randomised controlled trials identified 11 articles eligible for review.

A pilot project to explore the mental health and wellbeing among cardiothoracic staff and the impact of virtual reality guided mindfulness.

Background: The Cardio-Thoracic (CT) professional group experienced a significant increase in stress and workload during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) in Great Britain and Ireland with the aim of endorsing positive change. Aim of this project was to understand the Mental Health (MH) and wellbeing status of the CT professionals and to explore Virtual Reality Mindfulness as an intervention to improve MH and wellbeing.

Concurrent Outbreaks of Hepatitis A, Invasive Meningococcal Disease, and Mpox, Florida, USA, 2021-2022.

In 2022, concurrent outbreaks of hepatitis A, invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), and mpox were identified in Florida, USA, primarily among men who have sex with men. The hepatitis A outbreak (153 cases) was associated with hepatitis A virus genotype IA. The IMD outbreak (44 cases) was associated with Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C, sequence type 11, clonal complex 11.

Barriers to research progress for perioperative care practitioners working in cardiothoracic surgery.

Policy and research literature worldwide support the need to build research capacity and capability among non-medical practitioners within healthcare systems. However, there exists a paucity of evidence on whether practitioners in cardiothoracic surgery are attuned to this and on what barriers or enablers exist. A survey was carried out with non-medical practitioners working in cardiothoracic surgery in the United Kingdom to explore attitudes towards health research and audit, and to identify current challenges and barriers to surgical research and audit as perceived by cardiothoracic nurses and allied health professionals.