Cool-Shot Technique to Protect Spinal Cord during Thoracoabdominal Aortic Replacement.

Deep hypothermia helps protect the spinal cord, but is invasive. Here, we present a method to avoid reperfusion injury by selectively circulating cold blood under high pressure to the intercostal artery during reperfusion after intercostal artery reconstruction. Of the 23 patients who underwent thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm open repair, one died.

Acute endocarditis complicated by left ventricular pseudoaneurysm with acute bloody pericardial effusion: A case report.

Rationale: Delay in seeking medical attention for high fever and inadequate diagnosis can lead to rapid progression of inflammation and spread to surrounding tissues and organs. Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of systemic infections, and infectious endocarditis can swiftly become severe; therefore, careful management is required.

Patient Concerns: A 54-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with high fever and progressive loss of consciousness.

Sternal closure with sandwiched three-piece bioresorbable mesh reduces postoperative hemorrhage: a retrospective study.

Background: Median sternotomy is the most performed procedure in cardiac surgery; however, sternal displacement and bleeding remains a problem. This study aimed to investigate whether sternal reconstruction using a sandwiched three-piece bioresorbable mesh plate can prevent postoperative sternal displacement and bleeding more than a bioresorbable pin.

Methods: Patients (n = 218) who underwent median sternotomy were classified according to whether a sandwiched three-piece bioresorbable mesh plate and wire cerclage (group M, n = 109) or a bioresorbable pin and wire cerclage (group P, n = 109) were used during sternal reconstruction.

Management of cardiovascular surgery in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus including thromboembolism and multiple organ failure prevention: A retrospective observational study.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects most tissues. Cardiovascular events are critical, life-threatening, long-term complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We report our single-center experience of performing cardiovascular surgery in patients with SLE while avoiding postoperative complications.

Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair After Salvage Coronary Artery Bypass Graft for Type A Dissection.

Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening condition. It has a high death rate, especially in malperfusion. An 84-year-old man diagnosed with AAD with complete right coronary artery occlusion underwent bypass of only 1 branch of the coronary artery; the chest was closed without treating the AAD.

Two-stage aortic surgery for distal aortic arch and descending aorta aneurysms: A case report.

Rationale: Although surgical treatment strategies for patients with extensive thoracic aortic disease involving the aortic arch have improved considerably, the impact of stent graft length and placement site on aortic remodeling at long-term follow-up is not fully understood, and the protection of the Adamkiewicz artery (AKA) using the frozen elephant trunk (FET) method is also unclear.

Patient Concerns: The patient was a 69-year-old man with diabetic nephropathy who became increasingly fatigued and started maintenance hemodialysis 6 months prior to admission. At 64 years, he underwent clipping of a right cerebellar artery aneurysm.

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: Chronic Kidney Disease Has an Independent Adverse Effect on the Long-Term Outcome of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting.

We examined short- and long-term outcomes of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with ischemic heart disease and the effect of renal function on these outcomes. We included 2783 patients who underwent primary elective CABG at a single institution between 2002 and 2020 (age: 67.6 ± 10.

Factors for C-Kit Expression in Cardiac Outgrowth Cells and Human Heart Tissue.

We determined the factors associated with the expression of c-kit in the heart and the proliferation of c-kit-positive (c-kit) cardiac stem cells among the outgrowth cells cultured from human cardiac explants.Samples of the right atrium (RA), left atrium (LA), and left ventricle obtained from patients during open-heart surgery were processed for cell culture of outgrowth cells and tissue analysis. The total number of growing cells and the population of c-kit cells were measured and compared with c-kit expression in native tissues and characteristics of the patients according to the region of the heart.

Low Serum Levels of EPA are Associated with the Size and Growth Rate of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

Aim: Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have been reported to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, whether omega-3 PUFAs are involved in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) remains unclear.

Methods: We analyzed 67 consecutive patients admitted for the elective surgical repair of AAA.

Push-Up Technique and Anatomical Deployment With the Endurant Stent-Graft System for Severely Angulated Aneurysm Necks.

Purpose: To describe a technique suitable for treating severely angulated (>75°) necks during endovascular aneurysm repair using the Endurant stent-graft.

Technique: In the push-up technique, the suprarenal stent is released early to fix the proximal stent-graft in place so that each stent in the neck can be deployed individually without displacing the device upward. It is important to push the delivery system up after each stent deployment to allow the fabric between the stents to fold up circumferentially.

The impact of surgical left atrial appendage amputation/ligation on stroke prevention in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

Stroke is a major adverse event in patients developing atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardiac surgery. Surgical left atrial appendage amputation/ligation (LAA-A/L) during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) is routinely performed in our institution. We analyzed 578 consecutive patients (mean age 69 years, male 82%) undergoing OPCAB with or without concomitant LAA-A/L from 2011 to 2014 at our institution in a prospective observational manner.

The effect of tolvaptan on renal excretion of electrolytes and urea nitrogen in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: Adequate fluid management is an important component of patient care following cardiac surgery. Our aim in this study was to determine the benefits of tolvaptan, an oral selective vasopressin-2 receptor antagonist that causes electrolyte-free water diuresis, in postoperative fluid management. We prospectively examined the effect of tolvaptan on renal excretion of electrolytes and urea nitrogen in cardiac surgery patients.

Left Atrial Appendage Closure Reduces the Incidence of Postoperative Cerebrovascular Accident in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery.

Background: Cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) are a major adverse event following cardiac surgery, for which atrial fibrillation (AF) is considered as a risk factor. We have recently performed left atrial appendage (LAA) surgical closure or amputation (LAAC/A), which is the main source of emboli, during open-heart surgery.

Methods and results: A prospective observational study of 1,831 consecutive patients (69.

[Re-do coronary artery bypass grafting].

Redo-coronary artery bypass grafting( redo-CABG) still remains a challenging operation and is associated with a significantly higher risk of morbidity and mortality when compared with primary CABG. The higher risk of redo-CABG is largely attributable to the increased technical difficulty and the greater incremental risk in redo-CABG patients. Annual reports by the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery in recent years reveled that the absolute and relative number of redo-CABG gradually decreased, and in-hospital mortality did not change significantly over this periods and was much higher than primary CABG.

Denervation of gastroepiploic artery graft can reduce vasospasm.

Background: The right gastroepiploic artery is useful as an in situ arterial graft for coronary artery bypass grafting. However, the gastroepiploic artery is more likely to cause vasospasms compared with the internal thoracic artery. We hypothesized that the cause of the spasms is the stimulation of the periarterial sympathetic nerve, because the gastroepiploic artery is classified as a muscular artery.