Prospective Study of Psychosocial Outcomes of Having Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Among Women With Nonhereditary Breast Cancer.

Purpose The incidence of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) has continued to increase. We prospectively examined psychosocial outcomes before and up to 18 months after surgery in women who did or did not have CPM. Methods Women with unilateral, nonhereditary breast cancer completed questionnaires before and 1, 6, 12, and 18 months after surgery.

Four-year clinical update from the American Society of Breast Surgeons MammoSite brachytherapy trial.

Background: We present a 4-year update on the efficacy, cosmetic results, and complications of MammoSite breast brachytherapy in patients enrolled in the American Society of Breast Surgeons registry trial.

Methods: A total of 1,449 breasts in 1,440 patients with early stage breast cancer undergoing breast-conserving therapy were treated with adjuvant, accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) (34 Gy in 3.4-Gy fractions) delivered with the MammoSite device.

Placement of a left ventricular assist device in a patient with dextrocardia.

Dextrocardia most commonly presents in the setting of situs inversus, but it may occur as an isolated anomaly with normal position of the abdominal organs. Herein we present a 54-year-old man with ischemic cardiomyopathy and dextrocardia with normal position of the abdominal organs who presented with an exacerbation of congestive heart failure requiring inotropic support as well as mechanical ventilation. An implantable, wearable left ventricular assist device was placed in this patient to allow for ambulation and eventual discharge home.

A prospective evaluation of interrupted nitinol surgical clips in arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis.

Background: The use of a self-closing nitinol surgical clip (Coalescent Surgical U-Clip) is a novel technique of creating an interrupted vascular anastomosis, which also eliminates the knot tying associated with a conventional vascular anastomosis. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical outcome of arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) for hemodialysis as constructed using interrupted U-Clip devices and conventional continuous polypropylene sutures.

Methods: We prospectively studied the clinical course of 132 patients (149 access) undergoing either forearm autologous arteriovenous fistula (FAVF, n = 69) or upper arm autologous arteriovenous fistula (UAVF, n = 80) or creations during a 39-month period.