Cryosurgical left-sided maze procedure in patients with valvular heart disease: medium-term results.

Purpose: We evaluated medium-term results of the left-sided maze procedure using cryoablation in patients with valvular heart disease.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 111 patients with valvular heart disease who underwent the cryosurgical left-sided maze procedure. The mean follow-up period was 36.

Electron beam cine CT-based evaluation of left atrial function after the maze procedure for mitral valve regurgitation.

Objective: There has been little investigation of whether atrial function is equally restored by surgery in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) and atrial fibrillation (AF) compared to patients in sinus rhythm (SR).

Patients And Methods: We evaluated left atrium (LA) volume-time curves obtained from electron beam tomography. The study involved 33 patients who had surgical treatment for MR with or without AF and 11 control patients.

Active infective endocarditis: management and risk analysis of hospital death from 24 years' experience.

Background: This study was performed to identify risk factors for hospital death in patients with acute and active infective endocarditis (AAIE) after surgical intervention.

Methods And Results: From 1980 to 2004, 94 patients underwent surgery for AAIE (age range, 3-77 years; 76% males). Congestive heart failure (CHF) was present in 44 patients, as well as vegetations in 64, septicemia in 16, abscesses in 17, and emboli in 22; 16 patients had prosthetic valve endocarditis.

Patient-prosthesis mismatch may be irrelevant after aortic valve replacement with the 19-mm Perimount pericardial bioprosthesis in patients aged 65 years or older.

The prevalence of patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM) and its influence on clinical midterm results were examined in elderly patients whose activity was supposed to be less than that of younger patients. We evaluated valve function and the effects of PPM on the midterm results of the 19-mm Carpentier-Edwards Perimount (CEP) pericardial aortic valve in patients aged 65 years or older. Between August 1996 and May 2005, 51 patients underwent aortic valve replacement with the 19-mm CEP valve.

An epidural cooling catheter protects the spinal cord against ischemic injury in pigs.

Background: Using swine, we investigated whether epidural placement of a cooling catheter rather than infusing iced saline solution could protect the spinal cord from ischemia during aortic surgery.

Methods: We divided 14 domestic pigs into two groups of 7 each. Each underwent epidural catheter placement preceding 30 minutes of aortic cross-clamping distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery.

A technique for the prevention of hoarseness during surgery for distal aortic arch aneurysm.

Hoarseness occurs frequently after surgery to repair distal aortic arch aneurysms when using only a median sternotomy approach. We describe a useful technique which protects the left recurrent laryngeal nerve during this procedure and reduces the incidence of postoperative hoarseness.