The effect of gender on postoperative mortality after emergency abdominal surgery.

Background: The factors contributing to the high mortality after emergency abdominal surgery are unclear. Recent studies have revealed gender differences in immune function after trauma and in the presence of sepsis.

Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that factors determining survival after emergency abdominal surgery differ in males and females.

Mitral valve surgery and acute renal injury: port access versus median sternotomy.

Background: Many outcomes and complications of minimally invasive and conventional cardiac surgery await comparison. Patients undergoing mitral valve surgery commonly sustain renal injury. Using peak postoperative fractional change of serum creatinine as a marker of renal injury, we tested the hypothesis that mitral valve surgery with port access minithoracotomy (Port) and conventional surgery with a median sternotomy (MS) incision are associated with different degrees of acute renal injury.

Mitral flow propagation velocity identifies patients with abnormal diastolic function during coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Unlabelled: Flow propagation velocity (Vp) is a new method of assessing left ventricular (LV) diastolic (D) function that seems to be insensitive to heart rate and preload changes. We hypothesized that Vp <50 cm/s identifies patients with D dysfunction and that Vp provides an assessment of D function when standard Doppler techniques are uninterpretable. We conducted a prospective Doppler echocardiographic assessment of D function in 63 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Serum creatinine patterns in coronary bypass surgery patients with and without postoperative cognitive dysfunction.

Unlabelled: Renal dysfunction is common after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. We have previously shown that CABG procedures complicated by stroke have a threefold greater peak serum creatinine level relative to uncomplicated surgery. However, postoperative creatinine patterns for procedures complicated by cognitive dysfunction are unknown.