Dispositivos de asistencia ventricular como tratamiento de destino. A propósito de un caso.

The treatment of refractory terminal heart failure has been heart transplantation. However, there are limitations with regard to clinical conditions of the recipient and availability of donors, and ventricular support has therefore been alternatively used as destination therapy. We describe the case is of a female patient with ischemic cardiomyopathy-associated heart failure who had a left ventricular assist device successfully implanted and at eight months of the procedure was at functional class I, with no complications.

[Recurrent aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva, the world's first case report].

An aneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva is a rare cardiac anomaly (0.09% of cases in autopsy studies) . This article describes the case of a male patient, 58 years old with a history of smoking and surgery for the correction of sinus of Valsalva aneurysm 31 years before, with no record of approach or type of surgery.

[Distant heart procurement for transplantation].

Background: The low availability of organ donors is a serious hindrance to heart transplantation. Long-distance organ procurement has been accepted as an option despite longer ischemic time for the heart.

Methods: Long-distance procurement from outside Mexico City in adult patients with terminal heart failure submitted to orthotopic heart transplantation between February 1st 2011, and January 31st 2012, was assessed.