Cardiothoracic Surgery - Science topic

Cardiothoracic surgery usually causes tissue adhesion on the operation site which increases the risk of complications in the subsequent thoracic surgery including Nuss procedure. Disorders that require cardiothoracic surgery include chest wall deformities such as pectus excavatum, congenital heart diseases, lung diseases such as congenital cystic a...

We describe a rare case of simultaneous idiopathic right ventricular outflow tract dilatation and idiopathic main pulmonary artery aneurysm. A 59-year-old male presented with complaints of exertional shortness of breath and a cardiac murmur since childhood. CT pulmonary angiogram showed main pulmonary artery dilatation with a diameter of 5.8 cm. Ca...

Background Patients with adult-onset immunodeficiency syndrome due to anti-interferon-γ autoantibodies (AIGAs) are susceptible to disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections. M. chimaera, a newly identified MAC species, is distinguished from the others due to the reduced virulence. Previous cases of disseminated M. chimaera infection...

Background Patients with Darier disease often present with staphylococcal skin infections and are at risk for complications when they undergo cardiothoracic surgery, such as acute aortic dissection repair. Case summary A 39 year old woman with hypertension and Darier disease suffered an acute type A aortic dissection, requiring emergency operation...

Background Mycobacterium chimaera ocular infection is a rare disease that is linked to bypass devices used during cardiothoracic surgeries. Reported cases in the literature of ocular involvement preceding CNS involvement are based on clinical exam with no neuroimaging. Here we present a case of M. chimaera ocular infection with no CNS M. chimaera l...

Citation: Shervin Ziabakhsh Tabary,Alireza Sanei Motlagh. (2022). Massive right ventricular and pulmonary artery emboli in-transit after cardiac surgery: consideration of non-surgical treatment, J.Thoracic Disease and Cardiothoracic Surgery, 3(2) Abstract Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a complication of open-heart surgery that accounts for...

Tumoral calcinosis is a rare syndrome that affects mostly soft tissues. It is characterized by calcium salt deposition in the periarticular soft tissue surrounding bony structures forming slow-growing, seldom asymptomatic masses. This case report describes a 41-year-old male with end-stage renal disease on home hemodialysis, who presented with an u...

A teenage girl presented to our remote rural hospital with history of massive haemoptysis. A CT scan showed a spherical lesion in the right lung. Exploratory thoracotomy was performed with a provisional diagnosis of pulmonary hydatid cyst. Intraoperative findings were consistent with intrapulmonary teratoma and this was confirmed by a histopatholog...

Mycobacterium chimaera is a nontuberculous mycobacterium that belongs to the Mycobacterium avium complex. Invasive infections are very rare and have been associated with contaminated heater-cooler water systems used during cardiopulmonary bypass. There is usually a long latency period and patients have nonspecific symptoms that can result in a dela...

Background The organizational structure of cardiothoracic surgery practices varies among different programs throughout the United States (U.S.). We aimed to investigate the characteristics of the top ranked programs within the specialty and the surgeons practicing within each. Methods The top 50 hospitals for adult cardiology and heart surgery wer...

Humans' great and quick technological breakthroughs in the previous decade have undoubtedly influenced how surgical procedures are executed in the operating room. AI is becoming incredibly influential for surgical decision-making to help surgeons make better projections about the implications of surgical operations by considering different sources...

Background One of the most drastic complications of median sternal incision is deep sternal wound infection (DSWI), as it can lead to prolonged hospitalization, increased expected costs, re-entry into the ICU and even reoperation. Since the pectoralis major muscle flap (PMMF) technique was proposed in the 1980s, it has been widely used for sternal...

Background: The role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients with refractory respiratory failure due to coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is still unclear even now over a year into the pandemic. ECMO is becoming more commonplace even at smaller community hospitals. While the advantages of venovenous (VV) ECMO in acute respiratory dist...

The field of thoracic surgery is a rapidly developing field due to exciting developments in technology and oncologic treatments as well as continuous innovation in surgical technique. Although the population of Finland is relatively small, general thoracic surgery is represented at a high level in five centralized university centers, Helsinki Unive...

Introduction Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) makes up the majority of lung cancer cases. Currently, surgical resection is the gold standard of treatment. However, as patients are becoming medically more complex presenting with advanced disease, minimally invasive image-guided percutaneous ablations are gaining popularity. Therefore, comparison o...

Concerns have been raised in the neurosurgical literature regarding the use of BioGlue®, a tissue sealant initially developed for cardiothoracic surgery, due to reports of an increased incidence of infection, wound breakdown, and CSF fistulae. The aim of this study was to determine if the use of BioGlue® in skull base repair impacts on the sinonasa...

Aerosols inadvertently generated by the bubbling of contaminated water in heater cooler devices (HCDs) have been associated with hundreds of patient infections. These aerosols are typically generated by bubbling within the water tanks of HCDs that subsequently escape from the device leading to contamination of the operating room and potentially inf...

Physiologists Eduard Pfluger and Claude Bernard first introduced one lung ventilation (OLV) in 1871. Today, it is now a frequently used technique in open or minimally invasive cardiothoracic surgeries. One key benefit of the use of OLV is improved surgical exposure. Historically, lung isolation catheters used under fluoroscopic guidance or a Fogart...

Aim: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is now a gold standard in treating early-stage empyema, while much debate still exists considering the effectiveness of this approach for late-stage empyema. Most concerns arise from the crowded rib cage, narrow working space, and ability to free trapped lungs quickly, mainly if uniportal VATS is use...

Backgrounds High level of anion gap (AG) was associated with organic acidosis. This study aimed to explore the relationship between delta AG (ΔAG = AG max − AG min ) during first 3 days after intensive care unit (ICU) admission and hospital mortality for patients admitted in the cardiothoracic surgery recovery unit (CSRU). Methods In this retrospe...

Aims To investigate the association between the timing of cardiac surgery during pregnancy and both maternal and foetal outcomes. Methods and results Studies published up to 6 February 2021 on maternal and/or foetal mortality after cardiac surgery during pregnancy that included individual patient data were identified. Maternal and foetal mortality...

Background: Protamine neutralises heparin after separation from cardiopulmonary bypass. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of lidocaine on protamine induced pulmonary vascular constriction in paediatric cardiothoracic surgery. Methods: This was a single-centre, prospective, double-blind and randomised study conducted among eighty pediatric pa...

Thoracic and cardiothoracic surgery is one of the most dangerous diseases that may face a big problem. When performing such operations, cardiothoracic surgery is a medical field that specializes in surgery for diseases that affect the rib cage and heart. The major challenge is to address outliers and missing values problems for predicting thoracic...

Introduction Minimally invasive lung surgery (MILS) gradually became the primary surgical therapy for lung cancer, which remains the leading cause of cancer death. Adequate muscle relaxation by deep neuromuscular block (NMB) is particularly necessary for MILS to provide a satisfactory surgical field. However, deep NMB for MILS remains controversial...

A 70 year old left-handed man presented to his general practitioner with abnormal left arm movements, left hemianopia and loss of balance. He was found to have an isolated brachiocephalic artery aneurysm, measuring 3.5 cm, with associated plaque rupture, contributing to recurrent episodes of transient ischemic attack. He was discussed extensively b...

Background: Patients with malignant pleural effusion (MPE) are usually treated with an indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) or pleurodesis. However, most do not achieve a satisfactory control rate of pleural effusion and have poor prognosis. Distilled water has cytocidal effects of hypotonic shock and can result in the lysis of cancer cells which was...

Technological advancements and rapid expansion in the clinical use of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) across all age ranges in the last decade, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to important ethical considerations. As a costly and resource intensive therapy, ECLS is used emergently under high stakes circumstances where there is oft...

Intravascular extension of lung adenocarcinoma is one of the four defined routes of metastasis to the heart but is rarely described in the literature. This is a rare case of primary lung adenocarcinoma with intravenous extension to the left atrium via the pulmonary vein. A 56-year-old female presented to the hospital with chest tightness and dyspne...

Objectives The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) negatively impacted cardiothoracic (CT) surgery with changes in clinical, academic, and personal responsibilities. We hypothesized that the pandemic may disproportionately impact female academic CT surgeons accentuating pre-existing sex disparities. This study assessed sex differences in authorship...

Purpose of Review Herein we provide a review of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and its ability to assist in the evaluation and surgical management of advanced retroperitoneal, genitourinary tumors. Recent Findings Advanced retroperitoneal tumors such as advanced renal cell carcinoma, bulky retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy associated with advanced...

Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) continues to be the best standard in the management of severe coronary artery disease (CAD), providing good symptom management and life extension. Although CABG was first performed by reversed saphenous veins (SVGs), surgeons have increasingly adopted arterial conduits because of their longer-term...

Background/Aims Vaccine-associated autoimmunity is not infrequent, pertaining to either the cross-reaction between antigens or the action of adjuvant. This issue is more inexplicable to the COVID-19 vaccine, because of nucleic acid formulation and the hastened development process inflicted by the urgent pandemic condition. Here we are presenting a...

Background Surgical and catheter-based interventions for congenital heart disease require precise understanding of complex anatomy. The use of three-dimensional (3D) printing and virtual reality to enhance visuospatial understanding has been well documented, but integration of these methods into routine clinical practice has not been well described...

Background An intra-cardiac abscess is a serious complication of both native (NV-IE) and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis (PV-IE). Despite being an accepted indication for surgery, controversies remain regarding the optimal timing and type of operation. We aimed to report the outcomes of patients managed for intra-cardiac abscesses over more...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, performing a surgeon’s duties has become challenging while adhering to social distancing mandates. To aid in the continuity of healthcare services, rapid implementation of digital communication tools became a necessity. This is an account of experiences using digital communication platforms, namely Microsoft Teams and...

We present a case of a 31-year-old patient, smoker, with no previous medical history, presenting with acute limb ischemia and infarction of the spleen due to peripheral embolism. The source of embolism was thrombi formations in the left ventricular cavity, located in the area of the regional wall motions abnormalities. CT and coronary angiography c...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the educational impact following the implementation of a robotic thoracic surgery program on cardiothoracic (CT) surgery trainees. We hypothesized that the introduction of a robotic thoracic surgery program would adversely affect the CT surgery resident experience, decreasing operative involvement and sub...

We report the case of a 65‐year‐old male patient who presented with chest pain and was found to have a mediastinal paraganglioma between the left atrium and main pulmonary artery. This is the first reported case of a mediastinal paraganglioma resection utilization transection of the main pulmonary artery. Surgical resection is the standard of care...

Background: As cardiac surgery is complicated, time-consuming, and traumatic, it may cause great damage to the patient's body. Therefore, postoperative indwelling venous catheters are required for hemodynamic monitoring and rapid fluid replenishment. Intravenous catheterization infection can easily lead to phlebitis, which not only affects the suc...

Bronchogenic cysts are rare cystic malformations of the respiratory tract with prevalence that is largely unknown. They are most commonly diagnosed incidentally in asymptomatic patients. While surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment for patients who are symptomatic, the treatment course for patients without symptoms is less clear. We descri...

Aim and objectives: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of cold application on pain and anxiety reduction after chest tube removal (CTR). Background: The act of removing the chest tube often causes pain among cardiothoracic surgery patients. Most guidelines regarding CTR do not mention pain management. The ef...

Introduction There is emerging evidence supporting the use of the radial artery (RA) as a preferred secondary conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) as it is associated with higher rates of graft patency at 5 years when compared with saphenous vein grafts (SVG). The modified Allen’s test (MAT) is traditionally regarded as the standard o...

Objectives Lung cancer screening using low-dose CT may be not effective without considering the presence of comorbidities related to chronic smoking. The aim of the study was to establish the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in group of phighlight the potential benefits atients participating in the largest Polish lung canc...

Background High-flow nasal therapy is a non-invasive form of respiratory support that delivers low-level, flow dependent positive airway pressure. The device can be better tolerated by patients than alternatives such as continuous positive airway pressure. The primary objective is to determine if prophylactic high-flow nasal therapy after tracheal...

There is a paucity of literature evaluating trends in the demographic composition of the cardiothoracic surgery workforce. Using the United Network for Organ Sharing database, we retrospectively analyzed the changes in sex, race, and ethnicity of surgeons performing heart transplantations between 2000–2020. Surgeons performing heart transplantation...

Background Lung herniation is a rare condition, most often due to thoracic injury, but has also been described as a complication following cardiothoracic surgery. Here, we report two cases of post-surgical lung herniation following a neurosurgical mini-transthoracic (mini-TTA) for treatment of thoracic herniated discs. With this report we aim to ma...

Despite improvements in medical care, the burden of sepsis remains high. In this study, we evaluated the incremental cost associated with postoperative sepsis and the impact of postoperative sepsis on clinical outcomes among surgical patients in Vietnam. We used the national database that contained 1,241,893 surgical patients undergoing seven types...

Background: Music intervention can reduce anxiety. This study analyzed the physiological changes from using music intervention after cardiothoracic surgery. Methods: Subjects were randomly assigned to the music group or the control group. The maximal inspiratory pressure/maximal expiratory pressure (MIP/MEP), pulse oximeter oxygen saturation (Sp...

Accurate, real-time monitoring of intravascular oxygen levels is important in tracking the cardiopulmonary health of patients after cardiothoracic surgery. Existing technologies use intravascular placement of glass fiber-optic catheters that pose risks of blood vessel damage, thrombosis, and infection. In addition, physical tethers to power supply...

Extracorporeal circulation (ECC) systems, including cardiopulmonary bypass, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation have been an irreplaceable part of the cardiothoracic surgeries, and treatment of critically ill patients with respiratory and/or cardiac failure for more than half a century. During the recent decades, the concept of extracorporeal c...

Introduction: Some cases of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the anastomotic site between the Cabrol-type conduit and the left main coronary artery (LMCA) have been reported. Nevertheless, the combination of PCI with a detailed description of lesion appearance using virtual histology-intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) has never been re...

Background Infected coronary artery aneurysm with infected pericardial effusion is a very rare complication following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and is associated with high mortality. Management options include open cardiothoracic surgery or non-operative management with pericardiocentesis. The best management option is currently unkn...

Background: Consensus guidelines recommend multidisciplinary models to manage infective endocarditis, yet often do not address the unique challenges of treating people with drug use-associated infective endocarditis (DUA-IE). Our center is among the first to convene a Drug Use Endocarditis Treatment (DUET) team composed of specialists from Infecti...

Refractory post‐operative chylothorax in congenital heart disease is difficult to treat. We present a case of intractable neonatal chylothorax after cardiac surgery due to central lymphatic flow disorder that was treated by creating a lymphovenous anastomosis of the thoracic duct to the left external jugular vein for definitive treatment. Lymphoven...

Introduction Ischemia-Reperfusion (I/R) damage is one of the major challenges in cardiothoracic surgeries and in a pathological manner, is identified by exacerbated damage signals resulted from blood supply restriction and subsequent flow restoration and re‑oxygenation. I/R damage includes cellular dysfunction and death, impairing tissue and organ...

Stanford type A acute aortic syndromes (AAS) can be complicated with acute coronary closure and ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) leading to significant additional morbidity and mortality. The recommended treatment for type A AAS is emergency cardiac surgery. We present the case of a patient with intramural haematoma involving the...

Objectives To determine the association between left atrial epicardial conduction time (LAECT), fibrosis and atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after thoracoscopic surgical ablation of persistent AF. Setting Single tertiary care centre in the Netherlands. Participants Patients with persistent AF from the randomised Atrial Fibrillation Ablation a...

Introduction In order to reduce the risk of bleeding in patients on P2Y 12 receptor inhibitors presenting for non-emergent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), current guidelines recommend a preoperative discontinuation period of at least three, five and seven days for ticagrelor, clopidogrel and prasugrel, respectively, to allow for recovery of...