[Computer assisted open heart surgery. First case operated on with success].

The recent development of less invasive intracardiac surgery using small incisions and videoscopic techniques allowed an evaluation of the advantages and limitations of this new approach. Among the limitations was the increased difficulty of the surgical technique when using long instruments through small incisions and ports. We investigated whether computer assisted surgical instruments might bring a solution to this problem.

Dynamic cardiomyoplasty at seven years.

Since January 1985, the date of the first dynamic cardiomyoplasty, until April 1992, 52 patients with end-stage heart disease were operated on in our institution. Mean preoperative New York Heart Association functional class was 3.3 and ventricular ejection fraction 16% +/- 3%.

[Use of a synthetic prostacyclin in extracorporeal circulation].

Using a prostacyclin in conjunction with standard heparin might limit the occurrence of post-extracorporeal circulation (ECC) thrombopathy and reduce the risk of haemorrhage inherent in this technique. For this reason, we studied the effect of the prostacyclin analogue Iloprost (ZK 36 374), a drug which is active in man when given orally with a biological half-life of 30 min, and devised a double-blind randomized trial to evaluate the potential benefit of Iloprost versus placebo in 2 groups of 15 patients (A: placebo, B: Iloprost). An infusion of the drug in incremental doses (up to 12 ng kg-1 min-1) was begun before starting the ECC and was stopped at the end of the cardiopulmonary bypass, at the time of protamine injection.

[Calcified aortic stenosis and coronary disease. Apropos of 115 surgically-treated cases].

The authors studied 115 surgical cases of calcific aortic stenosis (AS) with coronary angiography. Between 1970 and 1981, 56 of these patients also had one or more aortocoronary bypass grafts (ACBG) (Group I). The other 59 cases, recruited from 1978 to 1981, comprise the control group who underwent isolated aortic valve replacement either with a normal coronary angiogram (Group II: 50 cases) or with such extensive coronary artery disease that ACBG was impossible (Group III: 9 cases).