Background: Surgical methods for treatment of tricuspid valve (TV) endocarditis include complete TV excision, TV replacement, and the use of various reconstructive techniques even in cases of severe TV destruction and incompetence. This study summarizes our experience with TV reconstruction and replacement in patients with severe TV endocarditis.
Methods: Between October 1997 and July 2004, TV reconstruction was performed in 18 patients (mean age, 38 +/- 17 years; 7 women, 11 men), and TV replacement in 4 patients (mean age, 48 +/- 22 years; 2 women, 2 men). All patients presented with active endocarditis and severe TV incompetence. Reconstructive techniques included debridement of vegetations, complete resection of infected or destroyed leaflet tissue, leaflet reconstruction with pericardial tissue, sliding plasty of residual valve tissue and bicuspid valve formation with construction of a new commissure, and consecutive ring annuloplasty in all patients.
Results: There were no perioperative deaths. Late mortality was 0% for patients with TV reconstruction and 25% (n = 1) in the TV replacement group. At the latest follow-up (78% complete; mean, 53 +/- 18 months), 11 patients had no recurrent TV incompetence. Three patients presented with TV incompetence grade I or II. Two patients with TV reconstruction had recurrent TV endocarditis between 3 and 18 month postoperatively, including new vegetations in both patients and an additional pleural empyema in one. In all cases, conservative treatment was successful and no reoperation was required.
Conclusions: The results of our study clearly demonstrate that in patients with severe TV endocarditis, complex reconstructive techniques yield excellent midterm results with regard to freedom of recurrence of endocarditis and valvular competence and should be considered as the primary surgical option in these patients. Tricuspid valve replacement should only be performed in cases of severe TV destruction that renders reconstructive techniques impossible.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2007.04.116 | DOI Listing |
JAMA Dermatol
January 2025
Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Importance: Surgery is frequently required for hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) treatment, but the impact of common comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, and smoking on outcomes has been sparsely studied.
Observations: A total of 12 studies met final inclusion criteria for investigating complication rates associated with at least 1 comorbidity. Complication rates were associated with obesity in 3 of 10 studies.
Bioinformatics
January 2025
School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan 611756, China.
Motivation: The rapid development of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has significantly advanced biomedical research. Clustering analysis, crucial for scRNA-seq data, faces challenges including data sparsity, high dimensionality, and variable gene expressions. Better low-dimensional embeddings for these complex data should maintain intrinsic information while making similar data close and dissimilar data distant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
January 2025
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Purpose: The positron range effect can impair PET image quality of Gallium-68 (Ga). A positron range correction (PRC) can be applied to reduce this effect. In this study, the effect of a tissue-independent PRC for Ga was investigated on patient data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFR I Med J (2013)
February 2025
Department of Orthopedics, Brown University, Providence, RI.
Objectives: Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequently encountered conditions in orthopedic practice. This study aimed to validate the Knee Intake Patient Survey (KIPS), a short-form questionnaire designed to assist in the initial diagnosis and treatment stratification for knee OA.
Methods: Patient intake survey results from a single adult reconstruction clinic were retrospectively analyzed alongside clinical diagnoses and treatment recommendations.
Torture
January 2025
Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Studies. VID Specialized University, Oslo. Correspondence to: anne.
Introduction: The concept of 'life project' is at the core of several decisions in the inter-American human rights system. The concept has also become part of the legal consciousness of torture survivors in Peru and is often referred to when they describe the impact of torture and imprisonment on their lives and on the lives of their children.
Methods: The paper is based on qualitative interviews with seven Peruvian torture survivors.
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