Publications by authors named "Katsushi Yamashita"

T4 locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous group with a great variety of involved organs and is associated with a poor prognosis. However, appropriately selected patients benefit from surgical resection. The surgical indication must be carefully considered based on the risk-benefit between high surgical stress and expected prognosis, particularly in cases with probable aortic involvement.

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Objective: Although the radial artery graft has an adaptive property to flow demand, its flow characteristics in aorto-coronary sequential bypass grafting are not well elucidated. We evaluated the differences between the vein and radial artery grafts in the patency and the transit time flow meter-derived parameters (flow and pulsatile index), according to the stenosis rate of terminal target vessels and the number of anastomoses, in sequential bypass grafting to the left coronary territories as a second conduit.

Methods: We analyzed 222 patients who underwent isolated on-pump beating coronary artery bypass grafting with an aorto-coronary bypass to the left coronary territory.

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Objective: Although transesophageal motor-evoked potential elicited by monopolar cervical cord stimulation is more stable and rapid in response to ischemia than transcranial motor-evoked potential in canine experiments, direct cervical alpha motor neuron stimulation precludes clinical application. We evaluated a novel stimulation method using a bipolar esophageal electrode to enable thoracic cord stimulation.

Methods: Twenty dogs were anesthetized.

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Objectives: Canine experiments have shown that transoesophageal motor-evoked potential monitoring is feasible, safe and stable, with a quicker response to ischaemia and a better prognostic value than transcranial motor-evoked potentials. We aimed to elucidate whether or not these findings were clinically reproducible.

Methods: A bipolar oesophageal electrode mounted on a large-diameter silicon tube and a train of 5 biphasic wave stimuli were used for transoesophageal stimulation.

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Objectives: To prevent haemodynamic stroke during cardiovascular surgery in patients with carotid stenosis, we routinely evaluated magnetic resonance angiography and selectively evaluated brain perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography with acetazolamide challenge. Off-pump surgery was preferred when cerebral blood flow reserve was impaired. This strategy's usefulness was investigated.

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Objective: Operative mortality and morbidity after thoracoabdominal aortic surgery remain high. We report our strategy and outcomes, especially those of spinal cord protection.

Methods: Outcomes of 178 patients (age: 26-88 years) who underwent thoracoabdominal aortic replacement were retrospectively analyzed.

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We report the case of a patient who developed paraparesis 2 days after endovascular aneurysm repair for a right common iliac aneurysm. The patient had undergone thoracic endovascular aortic repair. The left subclavian artery was occluded, but the left internal iliac artery was preserved.

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Valve-sparing aortic root replacement remains challenging for patients with eccentric severe aortic regurgitation when the cusps are totally asymmetric. We report a case of successful reimplantation operation for such a lesion. Because free margin lengths from commissure to Arantius body of the adjacent two cusps were matched while inter-commissural distances were totally different, right coronary cusp prolapse was corrected by asymmetrically aligning the position and height of three commissures without cusp plication.

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Article Synopsis
  • Doctors studied how the shape of aortic arch aneurysms (bulges in a blood vessel) relates to wall shear stress, which is the stress on the walls of the blood vessels.
  • They looked at 100 patients and found that different types of aneurysms (saccular and fusiform) have different shapes and stress levels.
  • The study suggests that certain measurements in saccular aneurysms can lead to lower wall shear stress, making them more likely to cause serious health issues.
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Objectives: We have previously reported that transesophageal motor evoked potential is feasible and more stable than transcranial motor evoked potential. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of transesophageal motor evoked potential to monitor spinal cord ischemia.

Methods: Transesophageal and transcranial motor evoked potentials were recorded in 13 anesthetized dogs at the bilateral forelimbs, anal sphincters, and hindlimbs.

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Objectives: Specificity of transcranial motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) is low because amplitude fluctuation is common, which seems due to several technical and fundamental reasons including difficulty in electrodes positioning and fixation for transcranial stimulation and susceptibility to anaesthesia. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility, safety and stability of our novel technique of transoesophageal spinal cord stimulation to improve the stability of MEPs.

Methods: Ten anaesthetized adult beagle dogs were used.

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We successfully treated small saccular abdominal aortic aneurysms involving the renal artery origin with direct sagittal suture closure under supra-celiac or supra-superior mesenteric artery cross clamping after renal artery reconstruction in two cases. This technique might be a useful option for localized saccular aortic aneurysms in selected cases.

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Objectives: Arterial variation is common in the vertebral artery, and simple occlusion of the left subclavian artery may result in brain infarction, especially when it terminates in the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA). We report the results of preoperative vertebral artery evaluation by magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and its impact upon operative strategy.

Methods: Among the 214 patients who underwent thoracic aortic surgery from 2009 through 2012, 159 patients with preoperative MRA were retrospectively analysed.

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An asymptomatic 43-year-old woman visited our hospital for differential diagnosis of cardiac murmur. The transthoracic echocardiogram exhibited a dilated duct, which had turbulently accelerated color Doppler flow behind left ventricle. The coronary angiography (CAG) revealed a marked dilated left circumflex artery (LCX), which appeared to connect to coronary sinus (CS), indicating coronary artery fistula.

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Life expectancy of the chronic dialysis patients depends upon the underlying renal disease, but its influence on the outcome of heart valve replacement has not been studied. We aimed to elucidate the difference in the early and midterm results of heart valve replacement according to the etiology of renal diseases. We retrospectively analyzed 17 patients on chronic dialysis who underwent heart valve replacement from 2002 to October 2009.

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With the exception of myxomas, primary tumors of the heart are very rare. We present here our experience with papillary fibroelastoma in the aortic valve. We could not preserve the aortic valve because of the wide attachment of the tumor to the valve and aortic regurgitation.

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Congenital systemic-to-pulmonary artery fistulas are very rare, with the exception of congenital heart disease and pulmonary sequestration. We describe the first reported case of left internal mammary and bronchial artery to pulmonary artery fistulas associated with bilateral coronary arteries to pulmonary artery fistulas.

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Coronary aneurysm is rare in SLE and confirmation of etiology is usually made at postmortem examination. We encountered a giant aneurysm with multiple stenotic segments of the coronary arteries in a patient with SLE who had previous history of AAA/TAA. Resection of the aneurysm and coronary artery bypass graft were successfully performed.

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A 51-year-old woman developed heart failure due to severe hypertension of the upper half of the body caused by coarctation of the aorta. From the available surgical options for this condition, we selected bypass grafting from the left subclavian artery to the descending aorta for this patient.

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Objective: Thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic surgery is sometimes complicated by subacute or delayed paraplegia. Pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) beta has been implicated in extensive inflammation and progressive neurodegeneration after ischemia. Using a rabbit model, we investigated the neuroprotective effects of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) in a temporal fashion.

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Objectives: Obstruction of blood flow through the arteria radicularis magna (ARM) has been linked with ischemic spinal cord injury after conventional thoracic aortic repair. Whether or not endoluminal stent-grafts, deliberately positioned against this artery can cause similar damage to the spinal cord has not been comprehensively investigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of lactate - a well-known biochemical marker of ischemic neurological injury, before and after stent-graft implantation against the ARM.

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An 80-year-old man developed a pseudoaneurysm in the ascending aorta due to mediastinitis following cardiac surgery. We successfully repaired the pseudoaneurysm with an autograft patch harvested from fascia lata and the saphenous vein. The repair, which was carried out in two layers, can be expected to be durable.

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Objective: Open stent-grafting is a recent technical modification of endoluminal stent-grafting, in which a stent-graft is inserted into the descending thoracic aorta through an opening in the aortic arch, to treat distal arch aneurysms or aortic dissection. Controversy remains as to whether patients with mega aorta syndrome, or those with very wide aneurysm necks, could be candidates for stent-graft treatment--open or endoluminal.

Methods: We recently attempted open stent-grafting in a patient with mega aorta syndrome who had a distal aortic arch aneurysm.

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Background: Recently, the right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA) has been used in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) as an alternative arterial graft. Unfortunately, an increased incidence of gastric cancers has been reported after CABG using the RGEA. Handling of the RGEA during gastrectomy in these patients may cause lethal complications, which sometimes reduces the feasibility of curative dissection of lymph nodes at the base of the graft.

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