Silver-Impregnated Dressing Does Not Decrease Incidence of Surgical Site Infection After Adult Cardiac Surgery.

Objective: Sternal wound infections complicate 1% to 8% of cardiac surgeries and carry significant morbidity. We investigated the utility of silver-impregnated dressing in decreasing sternal wound infections after sternotomy cases.

Methods: A single-institution cohort study was performed as part of a quality improvement trial of a new sternal dressing.

Repair of prosthetic mitral valve paravalvular leak using an off-pump transapical approach.

Patients who present with significant paravalvular regurgitation after mitral valve replacement remain a difficult patient population and high-risk surgical candidates. We present 3 cases of transapical closure of mitral valve paravalvular leak (PVL) after mitral valve replacement using Amplatzer closure devices (AGA Medical Corp, Plymouth, MN). All 3 patients experienced decreased regurgitation at the site of the closure as well as symptomatic improvement in their heart failure.

Treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax in a patient with right pulmonary agenesis.

Pulmonary agenesis is a rare congenital disease that is associated with many other congenital anomalies. We present the case of a patient, with right pulmonary agenesis and transmediastinal lung herniation, who presented with a spontaneous pneumothorax. This congenital anomaly and the treatment for this rare presentation is discussed in detail.

Impact of preoperative renal dysfunction in patients undergoing off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery bypass.

Background: The impact of the degree of renal dysfunction (RD) in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) ranging from normal to dialysis-dependence is not well defined.

Methods: A retrospective review of 14,199 patients undergoing isolated, primary CABG from January 1996 to May 2009 at Emory Healthcare was performed. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated by the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease formula: mild RD (eGFR 60 to 90 mL/min/1.