Freedom from neoaortic insufficiency: a comparison of classic Norwood and Norwood-Sano procedures.

Objectives: To investigate the incidence of neoaortic insufficiency in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome treated with the Norwood-Sano palliation and to compare it with that occurring after the classic Norwood procedure.

Design, Setting, Patients, Interventions: This was a retrospective review of all echocardiograms of patients diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (concomitant presence of left ventricular and aortic and mitral severe hypoplasia or atresia) who underwent staged palliation of the Norwood or Norwood-Sano type at a single academic institution between September 1999 and February 2005 and who survived a minimum of 3 months.

Outcome Measures: Neoaortic insufficiency was categorized as absent or mild <1 mm jet width, moderate 1-3 mm jet width, or severe >3 mm jet width.

Propensity-score analysis of early outcomes after bilateral versus single internal thoracic artery grafting.

Objective: : The use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries (BITAs) during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) improves long-term and event-free survival compared with single internal thoracic artery (SITA) grafting. It is controversial whether BITA grafting alters in-hospital adverse events after CABG.

Methods: : Isolated CABG cases using BITA or SITA at a single US academic center between January 1, 1997 and June 30, 2006 were retrospectively reviewed.

Off-pump techniques disproportionately benefit women and narrow the gender disparity in outcomes after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: Women experience greater morbidity and mortality than men after conventional coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The objective of this study was to determine whether off-pump CABG (OPCAB) alters this gender-based disparity.

Methods And Results: Retrospective review of risk factors and clinical outcomes for 11 413 consecutive patients having isolated CABG between January 1, 1997, and May 31, 2005, at a US academic center.

Revascularization in heart failure: coronary bypass or percutaneous coronary intervention?

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of heart failure in Western countries. Selected patients who have low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and CAD clearly benefit from coronary revascularization with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). CABG results seem to be superior to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the few comparative studies of the two approaches in patients who have CAD and low LVEF completed to date.

Outcomes after off-pump reoperative coronary artery bypass grafting.

Objective: : Application of off-pump techniques to reoperative coronary artery bypass (redo CABG) has been limited by technical difficulty and potential for embolism of atheromatous debris from diseased grafts, resulting in myocardial infarction and rapid hemodynamic deterioration. We compared outcomes after off-pump (OPCAB) and on-pump (ONCAB) in redo CABG.

Methods: : A retrospective chart review was performed for patients who underwent redo CABG at a single academic institution between January 1997 and December 2004.

Left ventricular aneurysm in a five-week-old child.

Ventricular aneurysms in the pediatric population are rare and no standardized method of treatment exists. We present a case of left ventricular (LV) aneurysm in an infant, 5 weeks after a balloon aortic valvuloplasty for congenital aortic stenosis.