Hybrid approach for cerebral protection in open-heart surgery: Case series.

Background: Stroke remains one of the most important complications of cardiac surgery and occurs in 2.2% after open-heart procedure. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality.

Late tricuspid surgery: predicting outcome with computed tomography.

Tricuspid regurgitation can progressively worsen years after left-sided heart valve surgery, requiring surgical intervention for which the prognostic factors are unclear. This study aimed to assess the prediction of surgical outcome using right ventricular function obtained from computed tomography. We prospectively enrolled 24 patients who underwent isolated tricuspid repair or replacement from 2005 to 2008.

Surgical treatment for empyema thoracis: is video-assisted thoracic surgery "better" than thoracotomy?

Background: Operations for empyema thoracis are conventionally performed by open thoracotomy, whereas the video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) approach remains controversial. This study compares the radiologic and functional outcomes of decortication using the two approaches.

Methods: During a 5-year period, 77 consecutive patients underwent decortication for empyema thoracis at two university teaching hospitals.

Mitral valve annuloplasty with Carpentier-Edwards physio ring: mid-term results.

The mid-term results of mitral valve repair with the Carpentier-Edwards Physio annuloplasty ring were assessed in 97 consecutive patients in a single tertiary-referral cardiothoracic surgical center. The mean follow-up time was 3.9 years (range, 1 month to 8.