COVID-19 in the Perioperative Period of Cardiovascular Surgery: the Brazilian Experience.

Introduction: We investigated the clinical course and outcomes of patients submitted to cardiovascular surgery in Brazil and who had developed symptoms/signs of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the perioperative period.

Methods: A retrospective multicenter study including 104 patients who were allocated in three groups according to time of positive real time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2): group 1, patients who underwent cardiac surgery > 10 days after positive RT-PCR; group 2, patients with a positive RT-PCR within 10 days before or after surgery; group 3, patients who presented positive RT-PCR > 10 days after surgery. The primary outcome was mortality and secondary outcomes were postoperative complications, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and postoperative days of hospitalization.

Scintigraphic imaging with technetium-99M-labelled ceftizoxime is a reliable technique for the diagnosis of deep sternal wound infection in rats.

Purpose: To evaluate whether scintigraphy with technetium-99m-labeled ceftizoxime ((99m)Tc-CFT) can differentiate mediastinitis from aseptic inflammation associated with sternotomy.

Methods: Twenty female Wistar rats were randomly distributed into four groups: S (control) -partial upper median sternotomy with no treatment; SW (control) - sternotomy and treatment of sternal wounds with bone wax; SB - sternotomy and infection with Staphylococcus aureus; SWB - sternotomy with bone wax treatment and bacterial infection. Scintigraphy with (99m)Tc-CFT was performed eight days after surgery and images were collected 210 and 360 min after infusion of the radiopharmaceutical.

Giant intrathoracic meningoceles associated with cutaneous neurofibromatosis type I: case report.

Background: Intrathoracic meningocele is a rare pathology, almost always associated with neurofibromatosis type I and with a few cases related in the literature. In the majority of cases cysts are small or asymptomatic, and the surgery is indicated when big or symptomatic cysts are present. We report a case of giant intrathoracic cysts surgically extirpated through out thoracotomy.