The technique of Awake coronary artery bypass (ACAB ) is about seven years old, it was first reported by Karagoz and coworkers. They performed few successful cardiac surgeries using thoracic epidural anestehsia in an awake patients without endotracheal general anesthesia.. After the initial reports, several authors reported series of cases, totaling to about one thousand cases so far. Ever sinc...

From March 1990 to May 1993,309 patients underwent redo cardiac surgery operation at the Shahid Rajai Heart Hospital in Tehran. Early mortality rates in these patients showed a significant increase in comparison to patients undergoing open heart surgery for the first time. Late mortality (at least one month after surgery) in the patients was slightly increased also but less than early morta...

Postoperative pulmonary complications contribute significantly to morbidity and morality in surgical patients. Pulmonary complications occur more frequently than cardiac complications. The complication rates for upper abdominal and thoracic surgery are the highest. A better understanding of the risk factors associated with postoperative pulmonary complications is essential to develop strategies...

bronchial leiomyoma is extremely rare. to date less than 60 cases have been reported in the world literature. the presented case here is a 30 year old woman who had been treated for bronchial asthma for several years. her chest radiograph showed bulluos emphysematous changes in the right lung and computer tomography scan found the tumor in the right main bronchus near carina. diagnosis was made...

multiple aorto-cardiac cavity communications is very rare but important complication of prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis. the case below illustrates multiple aorto-cardiac cavity fistula formation following prostethic aortic valve endocarditis presented with slowly progressive symptoms of heart failure. a brief review of surgical reconstruction and the existing literature are presented, inc...