Improving outcomes after low-risk coronary artery bypass grafting: understanding phase of care mortality analysis, failure to rescue and recent perioperative recommendations.

Purpose Of Review: Avoidable adverse events are responsible for up to 50% of deaths after low-risk coronary artery bypass grafting. This article reviews recent quality improvement efforts to improve outcomes after cardiac surgery.

Recent Findings: Systematic quality improvement methodology in cardiac surgery has improved significantly over the past decade.

Acute Right Ventricle Failure in the Intensive Care Unit: Assessment and Management.

Caring for the critically ill patient with acute right ventricle (RV) failure is a diagnostic and management challenge. A thorough understanding of normal RV anatomy and physiology is essential to manage RV failure. Despite the fact that the RV is essentially a volume chamber that ejects into a low-pressure system, the left ventricle contributes significantly to RV function through maintenance of the transseptal gradient (TSG).

Type A aortic dissection complicated by an aorto-right atrial fistula.

A 63-year-old male underwent an ascending aortic replacement for an acute type A dissection. Nine days later a fistulous communication between the right coronary sinus and right atrium was identified and surgically repaired. We present a literature review, including the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and surgical management of this rare complication.