Preoperative beta-blocker use reduces atrial fibrillation in off-pump coronary bypass surgery.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) after coronary artery bypass graft surgery constitutes the most common sustained arrhythmia and results in many complications. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of prophylactic use of beta-blockers against atrial fibrillation in off-pump surgery patients in the early postoperative period.

Methods: From 2002 to 2005, 78 patients were enrolled and 41 patients received 50 mg metoprolol succinate daily, which was initiated minimum four days before surgery.

Corpus sterni reinforcement improves the stability of primary sternal closure in high-risk patients.

Purpose: To compare standard sternal closure techniques with reinforcement longitudinal wire placement in the corpus sterni in high-risk patients undergoing open-heart surgery via median sternotomy.

Methods: The subjects of this study were 71 high-risk patients, 32 (45%) of whom underwent sternal closure by conventional methods (group 1) and 39 (55%) of whom underwent sternal closure with corpus sterni reinforcement. The patients were followed up for a mean period of 90 days.

A rare intracardiac mass: cardiac paraganglioma.

It is very rare for heart tissue to give rise to a primary paraganglioma. Here, we report the observation of such a tumour in a 34-year-old woman who presented with symptoms of pulmonary venous congestion. The findings from echocardiography were consistent with the diagnosis of a myxoma that was partially occluding the left atrium.

WITHDRAWN: A Rare Intracardiac Mass: Cardiac Paraganglioma.

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published in Heart Lung Circ, 16 (2007) 116-117, doi:10.1016/j.hlc.