Cardiac Surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses Patients and Association With Peri-Operative Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Strategies for blood conservation, coupled with a careful preoperative assessment, may be applied to Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) patients who are candidates for cardiac surgery interventions. There is a need to assess clinical outcomes and safety of bloodless surgery in JW patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing JW patients with controls undergoing cardiac surgery.

Cardiac Surgery in Nonagenarians Following the TAVI/TMVI Era: A Multicenter 23-Year Comparative Analysis.

Background: Studies reporting on the outcome of 90-year-old patients undergoing cardiac surgery are scant in literature; and currently, those regarding the implementation of trans-catheter techniques number even fewer.

Methods: We compared patients aged >89 years operated on between 1998 and 2008 at 8 Italian cardiac surgery centers, with patients of the same age operated on between 2009 and 2021. All of the patients were operated on with "open" surgery, with the exclusion of percutaneous valve repair/implantation procedures.

Short and long-term outcomes after cardiac surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses patients: a case-control study.

Cardiac surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) patients who refuse blood transfusion is challenging requiring dedicated strategies. We aimed to analyze non-selected JW patients undergoing cardiac surgery and to compare with matched controls both perioperative outcomes and long-term survival. We retrospectively analyzed JW patients undergoing cardiac surgery from January 2016 to March 2021 and compared them with matched controls.

Effect of Hospital-associated SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Cardiac Surgery: A Multicenter Study.

Background: The effect of hospital-associated SARS-CoV-2 infections in cardiac surgery patients remains poorly investigated, and current data are limited to small case series with conflicting results.

Methods: A multicenter European collaboration was organized to analyze the outcomes of patients who tested positive with hospital-associated SARS-CoV-2 infection after cardiac surgery. The study investigators hypothesized that early infection could be associated with worse postoperative outcomes; hence 2 groups were considered: (1) an early hospital-associated SARS-CoV-2 infection group comprising patients who had a positive molecular test result ≤7 days after surgery, with or without symptoms; and (2) a late hospital-associated SARS-CoV-2 infection group comprising patients whose test positivity occurred >7 days after surgery, with or without symptoms.

Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement: short-term efficacy of sutureless compared with stented bioprostheses.

Objectives: Sutureless aortic valve prostheses have been introduced to facilitate the implant process, speed up the operating time and improve haemodynamic performance. The goal of this study was to assess the potential advantages of using sutureless prostheses during minimally invasive aortic valve replacement in a large multicentre population.

Methods: From 2011 to 2019, a total of 3402 patients in 11 hospitals underwent isolated aortic valve replacement with minimal access approaches using a bioprosthesis.

Aortic Valve Replacement Via Right Anterior Mini-Thoracotomy: the Conventional Procedure Performed Through a Smaller Incision.

Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement has gained consent due to its good results in terms of minimized surgical trauma, faster rehabilitation, pain control and patient compliance. In our experience, we have tried to replicate the conventional and gold standard approach through a smaller incision. Sparing the right internal thoracic artery, avoiding rib fractures and performing total central cannulation is important to make this procedure minimally invasive from a biological point of view too.

Device profile of the Inspiris Resilia valve for aortic valve replacement: overview of its safety and efficacy.

Introduction: The Inspiris Resilia tissue valve was recently introduced into clinical practice. This review summarizes the pre-clinical and clinical studies leading to this new bioprosthesis.

Areas Covered: The novel Resilia tissue was tested extensively in a large animal model.

Major complications in extreme lateral interbody fusion access: multicentric study by Italian S.O.L.A.S. group.

Purpose: The eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF) approach has gained increasing importance in the last decade. This multicentric retrospective cohort study aims to assess the incidence of major complications in XLIF procedures performed by experienced surgeons and any relationship between the years of experience in XLIF procedures and the surgeon's rate of severe complications.

Methods: Nine Italian members of the Society of Lateral Access Surgery (SOLAS) have taken part in this study.

Current trends in mitral valve surgery: A multicenter national comparison between full-sternotomy and minimally-invasive approach.

Background: Mitral valve surgery (MVS) is evolving. Compared to standard sternotomy (S-MVS), minimally invasive method (Mini-MVS) has been increasingly adopted in the last years with encouraging results for both repairs and replacements. We evaluated trends of surgical approaches and operative outcomes in a multicenter study involving 10 cardiac surgical centers in Italy.

Severe Spinal Surgery Infection and Local Ozone Therapy as Complementary Treatment: A Case Report.

Background: Infection is a serious surgical complication that significantly increases morbidity and mortality rates as well as health care expenses. Increased bacterial resistance to antibiotics makes the treatment of such events even more troublesome.

Objective: To report on a surgical infection case treated with ozone as a complementary therapy.

Lumbar Lordosis Correction With Interbody Hyperlordotic Cages: Initial Experience, Learning Curve, Technical Aspects, and Complication Incidence.

Background: Analysis of the initial experience on learning curve, technical differences and perioperative or early postoperative complications using lumbar hyperlordotic anterior and lateral interbody cages for the correction of lumbar lordosis as compared with the usage of regular lordotic cages.

Methods: Initial 21 consecutive patients were treated with 13 hyperlordotic anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) cages and 8 hyperlordotic extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) cages. The mean patient age was 64 years, and the mean lumbar hypolordosis was 23°.

Relationship between psoas muscle dimensions and post operative thigh pain. A possible preoperative evaluation factor.

Introduction: Advanced intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) is used to attenuate postoperative complications and side effects of extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF). Specific factors relate to the presence of postoperative injury are not well understood. This study aims to identify intraoperative variables with correlations to new postoperative anterior thigh/groin sensory changes.

Direct lesion and repair of a common iliac vein during XLIF approach.

Purpose: Description of a case of direct intraoperative lesion and repair of a major vascular injury of common iliac vein during an extreme lateral interbody fusion L4-L5 procedure.

Methods: A 69-year-old female who was operated for L4-L5 spondilolysthesis suffered a major vascular injury of a vein. The high cava bifurcation and inadequate pre-operative analysis of the radiological documentation resulted in the lesion.

Five and ten year follow-up on intradiscal ozone injection for disc herniation.

Background: Disc herniation is the most common cause for spinal surgery and many clinicians employ epidural steroid injections with limited success. Intradiscal injection of ozone gas has been used as an alternative to epidural steroids and surgical discectomy. Early results are positive but long-term data are limited.

Aortic valve replacement through right minithoracotomy: is it really biologically minimally invasive?

Background: Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement through a right mini-thoracotomy is a procedure developed in the past few years. Currently, the main limits of this technique are longer cardiopulmonary bypass time compared with the standard approach and the need for peripheral cannulation.

Methods: From January 2010 to March 2014, 206 patients underwent an aortic valve replacement using a minimally invasive technique through a right mini-thoracotomy.

Outcomes of patients undergoing concomitant mitral and aortic valve surgery: results from an Italian regional cardiac surgery registry.

Objectives: There are limited reliable data on the long-term survival of patients operated upon with double-valve surgery (DVS) in the literature. In this study, in-hospital mortality and 5-year survival were determined and the potential risk factors for increased mortality were identified and discussed.

Methods: This is a report of an observational retrospective study of 1167 patients undergoing concomitant aortic and mitral valve surgery from 2002 to 2011.