Factors contributing to adverse perioperative events in adults with congenital heart disease: a structured analysis of cases from the closed claims project.

Objective: Prior investigations have suggested that the rapidly growing population of adults with congenital heart disease is at increased risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality, but information is limited on the nature of those perioperative factors that may relate to adverse outcomes. We sought to use a national claims database to describe the contribution of perioperative factors to adverse outcomes and compare contributing factors in cardiac vs. noncardiac operations.

Anesthetic management for reentry sternotomy in a patient with a full stomach and pericardial tamponade from left ventricular rupture.

A 57-year-old man presented with chest pain and shortness of breath 1 month after left ventricular aneurysmectomy and ventricular septal defect closure for post-infarct left ventricular aneurysm and ventricular septal defect. Echocardiography revealed a large recurrent ruptured inferior left ventricular aneurysm with high-velocity flow into a 5 cm posterolateral pericardial effusion. Thirty minutes earlier, the patient had eaten a full meal.