Interhospital air transport of a blind patient on extracorporeal life support with consecutive and successful left ventricular assist device implantation.

The use of extracorporeal life support systems (ECLS) in patients with postcardiotomy low cardiac output syndrome (LCO) as a bridge to recovery and bridge to implantation of ventricular assist device (VAD) is common nowadays. A 59-year-old patient with acute myocardial infarction received a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting of the circumflex artery. During catheterization of the left coronary artery (LAD), the patient showed ventricular fibrillation and required defibrillation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Where is the common sense in aortic valve replacement? A review of hemodynamics and sizing of stented tissue valves.

Heated debates revolve around the hemodynamic performance of stented aortic tissue valves. Because the opening area strongly influences the generation of a pressure gradient over the prosthesis, and the outer diameter determines which valve actually fits into the aortic root, it would seem logical that the valve with the greatest opening area in relation to its outer diameter should allow the best hemodynamic performance. Interestingly, neither of these 2 parameters is reflected by the manufacturing companies' size labels or suggested sizing strategies.

Moderate versus deep hypothermia for the arterial switch operation--experience with 100 consecutive patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of moderate versus deep perioperative hypothermia on postoperative morbidity in patients receiving the arterial switch operation (ASO).

Methods: One hundred consecutive patients received the ASO from 9/98 to 4/06 using temperature-corrected full-flow moderate (M>24 degrees C, n=51) or deep hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) (D <20 degrees C, n=49). Complex TGA morphology was present in 33 patients (M: 27.