The current surgical perspective to repair of atrioventricular septal defect with common atrioventricular junction.

Atrioventricular septal defect with common atrioventricular junction is a relatively common congenital cardiac malformation. It sometimes presents challenging surgical problems, especially when seen in combination with tetralogy of Fallot. We describe herein our current concepts regarding surgical repair of atrioventricular septal defect with and without tetralogy, discussing indications for surgery, timing, technical aspects, and outcomes.

Anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery: a universally applicable surgical strategy.

The most commonly reported coronary arterial malformation, in accounts of sudden deaths, is anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery. Anomalous coronary arteries may arise from the left, right, or non-coronary sinuses of Valsalva. Importantly, although the left coronary artery from the right sinus has the worst prognosis, sudden death has been reported in all variants of origin from the various sinuses of Valsalva.

Digital video recording of congenital heart operations with "surgical eye".

We describe our experience with routine digital video recording of congenital heart operations. We currently use the "surgical eye," in which a small camera is mounted between the standard surgical loupe lenses. This technique has evolved during the years of experience with various other techniques.

The World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery: its mission and history.

The World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery (WSPCHS) was established in 2006 to assemble pediatric and congenital heart surgeons from all continents and regions of the world and their colleagues from related specialties dealing with pediatric and congenital heart disease. Since its birth, it has held a highly successful inaugural scientific meeting in 2007 in Washington, DC, and a World Summit on Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery Services, Education, and Cardiac Care for Children and Adults with Congenital Heart Disease in 2008 in Montreal. It currently has 549 members from 71 countries and in a short period of time has become the largest organization in the world of pediatric and congenital heart surgeons.

The improvement of care for paediatric and congenital cardiac disease across the World: a challenge for the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery.

The diagnosis and treatment for paediatric and congenital cardiac disease has undergone remarkable progress over the last 60 years. Unfortunately, this progress has been largely limited to the developed world. Yet every year approximately 90% of the more than 1,000,000 children who are born with congenital cardiac disease across the world receive either suboptimal care or are totally denied care.

Durability of hand-sewn valves in the right ventricular outlet.

Objective: The objective was to compare the medium- and long-term outcomes for pericardial monocusp valves, polytetrafluoroethylene (Gore-Tex, WL Gore and Associates Inc, Flagstaff, Ariz) 0.1-mm monocusp valves, and bileaflet 0.l-mm polytetrafluoroethylene valves and their efficiency in the right ventricular outlet.

Atrioventricular canal: modified single patch technique.

A single surgeon experience using a modified single patch technique for the repair of 128 patients with complete atrioventricular canal is presented. Thirty-day mortality was 1.6%.

Clinical assessment of cardiac performance in infants and children following cardiac surgery.

Objective: To compare clinical assessment of cardiac performance with an invasive method of haemodynamic monitoring.

Design And Setting: Prospective observational study in a 16-bed tertiary paediatric intensive care unit.

Patients And Participants: Infants and children undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass and surgical repair of congenital heart lesions.

Mid-term results for double inlet left ventricle and similar morphologies: timing of Damus-Kaye-Stansel.

Background: Patients with double inlet left ventricle/l-transposition and similar morphologies have their systemic outflow traverse a bulboventricular foramen (BVF), which has a propensity to narrow over time. A Norwood procedure may be performed as the initial palliation. We prefer aortic arch repair and pulmonary artery banding, delaying Damus-Kaye-Stansel (DKS) or BVF resection until the second palliation.

Successful early surgical recruitment of the congenitally disconnected pulmonary artery.

Background: Our purpose was to document our experience with early recruitment of congenitally disconnected pulmonary arteries and to assess subsequent pulmonary artery growth and function.

Methods: Patients born in the 10-year period from 1989 to 1999 with a disconnected pulmonary artery diagnosed in infancy and treated in our unit were studied. To be included patients had nonconfluent pulmonary arteries with one or both completely disconnected from the main pulmonary artery.

Recombinant activated factor VII in paediatric cardiac surgery.

Objective: To review the use of recombinant activated factor VII in paediatric cardiac surgery.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Paediatric intensive care unit in a stand-alone university-affiliated children's hospital.

Contrast echocardiography: potential for the in-vivo study of pediatric myocardial preservation.

Background: Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) has been used successfully during adult cardiac surgery to image myocardial perfusion. Recently it has been suggested this technique is capable of detecting microvascular injury and inflammation because sonicated albumin microbubbles adhere to activated neutrophils and, in the presence of denuded or inflamed endothelium, they persist within the microvasculature rather than passing unimpeded, which results in profound slowing of their transit rates. The technique has not previously been used during congenital heart surgery; however significant potential is suggested in this setting in which myocardial inflammation may contribute to postoperative myocardial dysfunction, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.