Application of the CardioCel bovine pericardial patch - a preliminary report.

Introduction: Animal pericardial patches are widely used in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery. A search is ongoing for a new material with optimal surgical properties that will reduce intraoperative bleeding and the occurrence of restenosis, calcification, and pseudoaneurysms in long-term observation. One product of interest is the CardioCel bovine pericardial patch.

[Closure of major aorto-pulmonary collateral artery with the Amplatzer vascular plug in an infant with pulmonary atresia and ventricular septal defect - a difficult therapeutic problem].

A case of a 2-day-old newborn with congenital heart disease, pulmonary atresia and ventricular septal defect is described. The Blalock-Taussig shunt was created 6 days after birth. After the procedure, the newborn developed symptoms of increased pulmonary blood flow and respiratory distress.

Infection risk factors in pediatric cardiac surgery.

Cardiac operations were preformed in 499 children from January 1998 through December 1999. Their median age was 263 days. A positive culture from blood, bronchoalveolar lavage, wound, or central catheter was obtained in 110 patients (22%).