Cardiac surgery practice during the COVID-19 outbreak: a multicentre national survey.

Objectives: Healthcare systems worldwide have been overburdened by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Accordingly, hospitals had to implement strategies to profoundly reshape both non-COVID-19 medical care and surgical activities. Knowledge about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac surgery practice is pivotal.

Post-traumatic Aortopulmonary Fistula after Bentall Procedure.

Pseudoaneurysm complicated by aortopulmonary fistula (APF) after a Bentall procedure is extremely rare but potentially fatal, so timely diagnosis and treatment are critical. We present a subacute case of a post-traumatic APF which has had initial aspecific symptoms and later an acute worsening heart failure with chest pain not responding to medical treatment and requiring emergency surgery.

Early Versus Late Tracheostomy in Cardiac Surgical Patients: A 12-Year Single Center Experience.

Objectives: To evaluate whether early tracheostomy is associated with better outcomes in mechanical ventilation-dependent patients after cardiac surgery compared with a late tracheostomy.

Design: Retrospective, observational study.

Setting: Cardiac surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care center.

Metachronous cardiac and cerebral sarcomas: case report with focus on molecular findings and review of the literature.

Although multiple primary malignancies are relatively rare, they have increased in frequency over the last decades, partly because of advances in diagnosis and therapy. This report describes for the first time the case of a patient with past occupational exposure to asbestos and no family history of cancer who developed 2 rare primary malignancies: a cardiac sarcoma and a gliosarcoma 11 months later. Molecular-cytogenetic studies did not identify common lesions to these 2 rare metachronous sarcomas.

Nine years' experience with the chordal cutting technique in ischemic mitral regurgitation.

Objectives: The optimal surgical management of chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation has not yet been clearly defined. Among the various approaches proposed, the excision of strut (or main) chordae, along with complete annuloplasty to relieve tethering, has been the one preferred by our institution to treat this particular subset of mitral disease.

Methods: Between October 2004 and May 2013, 11 patients underwent surgery for chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation.