Recoarctation of the aorta after the Norwood procedure may be treated during the second stage of the surgical palliation.

Objectives: Recoarctation of the aorta (re-CoA) after the Norwood procedure is traditionally treated during catheter-based aortoplasty (CB-A) performed as a separate procedure preceding stage II surgical palliation (S II SP). Our goal was to determine the efficacy of the protocol according to which re-CoA after the Norwood procedure in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome is treated during S II SP using hybrid catheter-based aortoplasty.

Methods: We compared 2 groups of infants who developed re-CoA after the Norwood procedure and were treated at the same institution: In group I (n = 18), CB-A was traditionally performed before S II SP; in group II (n = 15), CB-A was performed during S II SP using a hybrid procedure (catheter access was through an aortic cannula routinely used for cardiopulmonary bypass).

The effect of prenatal diagnosis on antibiotic therapy in neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Antibiotics in prenatally diagnosed patients with HLHS.

Introduction: Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital heart anomaly that is diagnosed prenatally or postnatally. The prenatal diagnosis leads to limiting the rate of systemic complications in the preoperative period due to optimization of the early therapeutic management.

Objective: The objective of the study is to determine the effect of prenatal diagnostic management of HLHS on the condition of newborns and the frequency of antibiotherapy employment prior to the first stage of surgical treatment.

Risk factors for recoarctation of aorta after Norwood procedure in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Background: Recoarctation (reCoA) of the aorta is a common complication afer the Norwood procedure. Untreated, it can lead to failure of the systemic ventricle and death. The main goal of the study is to define risk factors of reCoA after the Norwood procedure in hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

The "double dunk" technique for a right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit implantation during the Norwood procedure reduces unintended shunt-related events.

Background: The introduction of a right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit (RVPAc) during the Norwood procedure (NP) for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) resulted in a higher survival rate, but also in an increased number of unintended pulmonary and shunt-related interventions.

Aim: To analyse how several modifications employed in RVPAc implantation during NP may influence the interstage course, unintended surgical or catheter-based interventions, and pulmonary artery development in a cohort of patients with HLHS.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed three groups of non-selected, consecutive neonates who underwent the NP between 2011 and 2014, with different RVPAc surgical techniques employed: Group I (n = 32) - left RVPAc with distal homograft cuff, Group II (n = 28) - right RVPAc with distal homograft cuff, and Group III (n = 41) - "double dunk," right reinforced RVPAc (n = 41).

Effect of acid-base balance on postoperative course in children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome after the modified Norwood procedure.

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital heart defect that requires 3-stage cardiac surgical treatment and multidirectional specialist care. The condition of newborns in the first postoperative days following the modified Norwood procedure is characterized by considerable hemodynamic instability that may result in a sudden cardiac arrest. It is believed that the most important cause of hemodynamic instability is the fluctuations in redistribution between pulmonary and systemic blood flow.

The impact of environmental factors on the occurrence of congenital heart disease in the form of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Introduction: Congenital heart defects are the most common abnormalities in neonatal age. Congenital heart defects occur with a frequency of 3-12/1000 births. A special group is constituted by children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome because their treatment is extremely complex, requiring three-stage surgery and the involvement of various specialists.

Myocardial infarction and angina pectoris in the history of Polish medicine. Part 2. Diagnosis and early attempts at treatment: the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the second part of the article, developments following the "discovery" of ischemic heart disease and gaining understanding of its nature have been presented starting from the first intravital diagnoses of myocardial infarction in the history of the world medicine established by Adam Hammer in Austria (1878) and Edward Korczyński in Krakow (1887). The contribution of Polish clinicians at the turn of the XX century to the first modern attempts at elucidating the nature of myocardial infarction based on the knowledge of anatomopathology and physiology prevalent at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century has been described. A special role in understanding pathological mechanisms of myocardial infarction was played by such Polish researchers as Władysław Biegański, Józef Pawiński, Zdzisław Dmochowski, Władysław Antoni Gluziński and Marian Franke.

Myocardial infarction and angina pectoris in the history of Polish medicine. Part 1. Discovery and understanding of the disease.

This review presents the most important achievements associated with the understanding of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction in Poland. The author describes the contribution of physicians living on Polish soil to scientific knowledge in this field. The beginning of Polish interest in cardiac diseases are associated with an eminent medieval physician, Thomas of Wrocław.

[The celebrity of Polish and French medicine--Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński (1857-1932)].

The paper presents a biography of Polish and French medical scientist, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński (1857-1932), a son of Polish exiles to France after the unsuccessful insurrection against the Russian occupants. Born in Paris, Babiński considered Poland as his own home-country, being faithful and grateful citizen of France, his adopted country. He made his neurological department in Paris a world famous medical centre at the turn of the 20th century.

[Newborn life threatening respiratory failure treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation].

Unlabelled: THE AIM of the study was to show first results of newborn life threatening respiratory failure treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in Poland.

Material: Nine newborns were treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Silesian Center for Heart Diseases. Newborns were born in 38 week of gestational age (36-41 weeks) with mean birth weight of 3490 g.

Albert Wojciech Adamkiewicz: the discoverer of the variable vascularity of the spinal cord.

The present article contains a brief biography as well as a discussion of the more significant contributions of Albert Wojciech Adamkiewicz, Head of General and Experimental Pathology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in the years 1879 to 1892, and who is now primarily remembered as the discoverer of the major radicular artery eponymically named "Adamkiewicz's artery." His work as an investigator of the variability of the vasculature of the spinal cord led to his major contributions to present clinical practice in such areas as vascular surgery, neurosurgery, pediatric surgery, and the surgery of the aorta, providing a permanent Polish eponymic accent in major textbooks in these specialties. This article also deals with Adamkiewicz's contributions in other fields, mostly involving the nervous system, such as the development of a new and original method for staining neuronal tissue (double staining of the spinal cord) and his extensive studies of spinal cord degeneration.

[Coronary disease in the past. An attempt at evaluating the dissertation by Jan Cenner "De angor pectoris" (1820) in the context of contemporary knowledge].

Following an abbreviated historical review of literature related to angina pectoris spanning the period from olden days to the beginning of the XIX th century, this paper analyses Jan Cenner's doctoral dissertation entitled "Dissertation inauguralis medica de angor pectoris", written in Cracow, Poland in 1820. A conciliation of the information regarding coronary artery disease with the current state of medical understanding is made in a tabular form and an attempt at an assessment of treatment rules (including prevention, general non-specific therapy, local treatment, dietary management and the use of pharmacological agents) according to updated medical criteria follows. The authors' goal is an objective evaluation of the real scientific value of Cenner's work in light of nearly two centuries of progress in medical knowledge.

[New possibilities in the postoperative measures to prevent bleeding in cardiac surgery. Will the recombinant activated factor VII improve surgical results?].

The authors present the diagnostic and therapeutic management in bleeding episodes associated with cardiosurgical operations, which constitutes the policy that is employed at Department of Cardiac Surgery and Transplantology, Silesian Academy of Medicine, Zabrze, Poland. The paper also presents a compendium of information on the pathophysiology of coagulation processes, most significant from the standpoint of cardiosurgical practice. Separate issues associated with providing optimal hemostasis in patients operated on using cardiopulmonary bypass are discussed, along with the effect of cardiac procedures on coagulation processes.