A rapid deployment valve option for failing Medtronic Freestyle full root: a single centre experience.

Background: There are several high-risk treatment options for valve failure of a biological full root replacement. When tailoring the best treatment option for the patient, implantation of a rapid deployment valve (RDV) should be considered.

Case Presentation: Six patients presented with aortic regurgitation in a full root Freestyle bioprosthesis.

Clinical Efficacy of Combined Surgical Patient Safety System and the World Health Organization's Checklists in Surgery: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Checklists have been shown to improve patient outcomes in surgery. The intraoperatively used World Health Organization surgical safety checklist (WHO SSC) is now mandatory in many countries. The only evidenced checklist to address preoperative and postoperative care is the Surgical Patient Safety System (SURPASS), which has been found to be effective in improving patient outcomes.

A dose-response study of levosimendan in a porcine model of acute ischaemic heart failure.

Objectives: Levosimendan is a novel inotropic agent claimed to improve myocardial contractility by a calcium-sensitizing effect. Our aim was to evaluate dose-dependent effects of levosimendan on left ventricular (LV) contractility and energetic properties in an acute, ischaemic heart failure porcine model.

Methods: Six pigs were used in an anaesthetized in vivo open-chest model.

Initial experience with the Freedom Solo® stentless aortic valve in a low volume centre.

Objectives: Freedom Solo is a stentless biological aortic valve which is implanted supra-annularly with a single suture line. An increased risk of postoperative thrombocytopenia in the early postoperative period has been reported in recent studies. In our study we evaluated postoperative haemodynamic performance and thrombocyte-levels.

Prophylactic treatment with levosimendan: a retrospective matched-control study of patients with reduced left ventricular function.

Objective: Levosimendan is a calcium-sensitising inotropic agent and a vasodilator used in the treatment of heart failure. Post-cardiotomy cardiac failure is more common in patients with a low preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We aim at investigating how prophylactic treatment with levosimendan before weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) affects postoperative haemodynamics and outcome in patients with low preoperative LVEF.