Improve morbidity and mortality in coronary artery bypass graft surgery for severe atherosclerosis.

Objectives: Atherosclerosis has been identified as a risk factor for both morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). To investigate outcomes following CABG for severe atherosclerosis, and to determine whether different surgical techniques can reduce the risk of neurologic events in these patients.

Methods: We studied 225 consecutive patients who underwent elective isolated CABG.

Aortic valve destruction and pseudoaneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva associated with infective endocarditis.

We report the successful surgical treatment of a case of aortic valve destruction and pseudoaneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva associated with infective endocarditis (IE) in an 80-year-old woman. Multidetector-row computed tomography revealed an abnormal cavity in the left posterior aortic root. We had made the diagnosis of the aortic valve destruction and saccular pseudoaneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva associated with IE.

Persistent left superior vena cava draining to left atrium with normal coronary sinus.

In embryology, a persistent connection of the left superior vena cava to the left atrium rarely coexists with a coronary sinus. We herein report an unusual case of persistent left superior vena cava terminating in a left atrium with normal coronary sinus, which was revealed at the time of permanent pacemaker implantation after a second operation for recurrent left atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Because this anomaly had gone undiagnosed at the first operation, we were unable to diagnose it prior to the second operation, because the preoperative coronary angiogram clearly demonstrated a coronary sinus that was not dilated.

Extensive thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair using deep hypothermic bypass and circulatory arrest.

We sought to evaluate the safety and usefulness of deep hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with intervals of circulatory arrest for extensive thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. Between March 1994 and December 2002, 17 patients with Crawford type I and II were reviewed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups: group H (hypothermic circulatory arrest, n = 8) and group N (normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass, n = 9).