Repairing of infarcted myocardium using a novel cell patch therapy.

A 54-year-old man underwent left anterior descending artery bypass grafting with cell patch therapy for myocardial infarction. We applied a novel approach to replicating the infarcted myocardium by anchoring polyglycolic acid felt seeded with autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells in front of the infarcted area. The cell patch remained fixed to the myocardium for 1 month, and the infarcted myocardium was reperfused.

Chronic contained rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Computed tomography in a 74-year-old man with intermittent claudication revealed an abdominal aortic aneurysm, retroperitoneal hematoma, vertebral erosion, and total aortic occlusion. Surgery was delayed for 9 months after definitive diagnosis of contained rupture of the aortic aneurysm to allow treatment for ischemic heart disease and cardiac failure. After interposing a Y-shaped woven Dacron graft, the intermittent claudication was alleviated.

Using fascia lata to treat infective aortic false aneurysm.

In patients with infective aortic false aneurysms, repair using artificial materials is in danger of becoming an additional focus for infection. We used harvested autologous fascia lata as a vascular patch in such operations on 2 patients with infected mediastinal false aneurysm after coronary artery bypass surgery. These patients have not had any recurrences of mediastinitis and false aneurysm for 4 to 6 years after the operations.

Surgical case of isolated pulmonary Takayasu's arteritis.

Involvement of the pulmonary arteries is common in systemic Takayasu's arteritis, but pulmonary arteritis alone is very rare. A 67-year-old woman had severe right pulmonary artery stenosis and left pulmonary arterial obstruction caused by Takayasu's arteritis. Surgical treatment was successfully performed with extracorporeal circulation, without transection of the ascending aorta and the right pulmonary artery was enlarged with an autologous pericardial patch.

Experience with expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE Gore-Tex) surgical membrane for coronary artery grafting: does ePTFE surgical membrane predispose to postoperative mediastinitis?

The advantage of completely closing the pericardium after a coronary artery bypass grafting is the avoidance of injury of the heart and grafts during a re-operation. However, it would obviously be counterproductive to close the pericardium with a substitute that is predisposed to infection. This study was designed to evaluate the safety of ePTFE surgical membrane in comparison to native pericardium or autologous tissue.

Flow dynamics in internal thoracic artery grafts 10 years after coronary artery bypass grafting.

Background: Flow dynamics in internal thoracic artery grafts 10 years after surgery are not known.

Methods: Doppler examination was performed in native internal thoracic arteries as a control (n = 8) and in internal thoracic artery grafts to the left anterior descending coronary artery 6 months postoperatively (group A, n = 25), at 5 years (group B, n = 14), and at 10 years (group C, n = 11).

Results: Each graft group showed a diastolic to systolic peak velocity ratio of less than 1.