Left atrial reduction in modified maze procedure with concomitant mitral surgery.

Background: An association between mitral valve disease and atrial fibrillation is common. Modifications of energy sources have simplified surgical ablation. Left atrial size reduction should improve outcomes of the maze operation.

The prognostic value of ERCC1 and RRM1 gene expression in completely resected non-small cell lung cancer: tumor recurrence and overall survival.

Background: The roles of excision repair cross-complementing group 1 gene (ERCC1) expression and ribonucleotide reductase subunit M1 gene (RRM1) expression in completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are still debatable. Previous studies have shown that both genes affected the overall survival and outcomes of patients who received platinum-based chemotherapy; however, some studies did not show this correlation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic values of ERCC1 and RRM1 gene expression in predicting tumor recurrence and overall survival in patients with completely resected NSCLC who received adjuvant chemotherapy and in those who did not.

Completely resected n0 non-small cell lung cancer: prognostic factors affecting long-term survival.

Background. Although early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has an excellent outcome and correlated with good long-term survival, up to 15 percent of patients still relapse postoperatively and die. This study is conducted to identify prognostic factors that may affect the long-term survival in completely resected N0 NSCLC.

Prognostic factors of tumor recurrence in completely resected non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Patients with completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have an excellent outcome; however tumor recurs in 30%-77% of patients. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathologic features of patients with any operable stage of NSCLC to identify the prognostic factors that influence tumor recurrence, including intratumoral blood vessel invasion (IVI), tumor size, tumor necrosis, and intratumoral lymphatic invasion.

Methods: From January 2002 to December 2011, 227 consecutive patients were enrolled in this study.

Patient-prosthesis mismatch has no influence on in-hospital mortality after aortic valve replacement.

Objective: To analyze the relationship between prosthetic aortic valve orifice and body surface area (Effective Orifice Area Index, EOAI) and in-hospital mortality after aortic valve replacement.

Material And Method: A prospective study was conducted between October 2007 to September 2010, 536 patients underwent isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR) was recorded on preoperative, operative and postoperative data. Patient Prosthesis Mismatch (PPM) was classified by Effective Orifice Area Indexed (EOAI) by prosthetic valve area divided by body surface area as mild or no significance if the EOAI is greater than 0.

Autologous pericardial valved conduit for the Ross operation.

The feasibility and function of autologous pericardial valved conduit for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction in the Ross operation were assessed. Between June 1997 and April 2002, 31 patients underwent this procedure at our institution; one was lost to follow-up. The other 26 males and 4 females were aged 17 to 60 years (mean, 36.