Safety and efficacy of a nurse-led clinic for post-operative coronary artery bypass grafting patients.

Background: New opportunities are emerging for nurses as sovereign health care specialists. In accordance with British and American experience, several universities on the European Continent started Advance Nursing Practice programs for nurses to become certified nurse specialists, functioning as intermediates between the consultant, the ward nurse and the patient.

Aims: This observational study was conducted to evaluate safety and efficacy of a nurse-led clinic for patients recovering after a successful coronary artery bypass grafting operation.

Diagnosing cardiac contusion: old wisdom and new insights.

Cardiac contusion is usually caused by blunt chest trauma and therefore is frequently suspected in patients involved in car or motorcycle accidents. The diagnosis of a myocardial contusion is difficult because of non-specific symptoms and the lack of an ideal test to detect myocardial damage. Cardiac contusion can cause life threatening arrhythmias and cardiac failure.

[Unexplained right ventricle dilatation clarified by a cardiac contusion many years ago].

In a 52-year-old man with new onset atrial fibrillation, transthoracic echocardiography showed an isolated, considerably dilated right ventricle. Frequent causes of right ventricular dilatation were ruled out. The image-forming investigation showed an isolated dilation of the ventral part of the heart, which, in combination with a blunt chest trauma 30 years previously, led to a previous cardiac contusion being suspected.