Perspectives on the Fellowship Training in Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Anesthesia and Critical Care in Europe From Program Directors and Educational Leads Around Europe.

This article reviews fellowship training in adult cardiac, thoracic, and vascular anesthesia and critical care from the perspective of European program initiators and educational leaders in these subspecialties together with current training fellows. Currently, the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiology (EACTA) network has 20 certified fellowship positions each year in 10 hosting centers within 7 European countries, with 2 positions outside Europe (São Paulo, Brazil). Since 2009, 42 fellows have completed the fellowship training.

Preoperative rehabilitation for thoracic surgery.

Purpose Of Review: Lung resection provides the best outcome for patients with early stage lung cancer. However, lung cancer surgery carries a significant risk of perioperative complications. Patient risk may be reduced by addressing modifiable risk factors in the preoperative period.

Perioperative Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: The Defibrillator of the 21st Century?: A Case Report.

Veno-arterial-extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECMO-CPR) has been recommended by new resuscitation guidelines in the United Kingdom. Our recently established yet unfunded ECMO-CPR service has thus far treated 6 patients, with 3 making a good recovery. One patient suffered a catastrophic perioperative complication through glycine absorption and we are in no doubt that she would not have survived without ECMO.

Standards for heart valve surgery in a 'Heart Valve Centre of Excellence'.

Surgical centres of excellence should include multidisciplinary teams with specialist expertise in imaging, clinical assessment and surgery for patients with heart valve disease. There should be structured training programmes for the staff involved in the periprocedural care of the patient and these should be overseen by national or international professional societies. Good results are usually associated with high individual and centre volumes, but this relationship is complex.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as an alternative to ventilation.

Purpose Of Review: Following the recent H1N1 epidemic, there has been renewed interest in using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a treatment for acute respiratory failure. Currently, following the advances in technology, ECMO is now recommended as a definitive treatment for acute respiratory failure. However, there have been limited randomized trials and cohort studies evaluating this therapy.

Update on anaesthetic approach to pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertensive patients going for surgery are at significant risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality. They pose a clinically challenging situation for the anaesthetist and strategies to minimize the effects on these patients are discussed. Recent advances have allowed a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms and development of new therapies.

Innovative use of Octopus IV stabilizer in cardiac trauma.

We report an innovative use of the Octopus IV cardiac stabilizer in a case of penetrating thoracic injury. In this case, we used the Octopus IV cardiac stabilizer to immobilize the right ventricular outflow tract during the repair of a stab wound. To date, there have been no reports of such an application of the Octopus IV cardiac stabilizer.

Three-dimensional echocardiography is superior to multiplane transoesophageal echo in the assessment of regurgitant mitral valve morphology.

Aims: Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) plays a vital role in the assessment of mitral valve morphology. However, the accuracy of TOE may be limited by inadequate recognition of all segments. We aimed to evaluate the role of three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography in this respect.

Dopamine therapy for patients at risk of renal dysfunction following cardiac surgery: science or fiction?

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the renoprotective role of renal-dose dopamine on cardiac surgical patients at high risk of postoperative renal dysfunction. The latter included older patients or those with pre-existing renal disease, elevated preoperative serum creatinine (Cr), poor ventricular function, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and unstable angina requiring intravenous therapy.

Methods: Fifty patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) who fulfilled the entry criteria were prospectively randomized into two groups: Group 1 received a 'renal-dose' (3 microg kg(-1) min(-1)) dopamine infusion starting at anaesthetic induction for 48 h whilst saline infusion acted as placebo in Group 2.