Recently, there have been more reports of cardiac valve infections due to the increasing number of intravenous (IV) drug abusers and chronic renal failure patients. Among cardiac valves, tricuspid valve is most commonly affected in the course of endocarditis. Appropriate management of these patients is a challenging and controversial issue in the field of cardiac surgery. Treatment options in s...

The fatality rate for pediatric population with complex congenital cardiac disease has decreased as a result of improvements in surgical techniques and conservative management [1]. Therefore, more patients are presenting non-cardiac surgeries adults history [2]. For individuals single ventricle physiology, the fontan procedure is palliative operation that reroutes systemic venous return to pulm...

INTRODUCTION Cardiac tamponade is excessive collection of fluid in the pericardial sac surrounding the heart that leads to restriction of cardiac function and causes critical cardiogenic shock and rapid circulatory depression. Despite the potential variety of different etiologies in the face of a dangerous decrease of cardiac output, the emergency life-saving procedure is surgical pericardial f...

As A RESULT of the use of the surgical procedure of mitral commissurotomy a number of patients who were otherwise destined to progressive cardiac invalidism are now fairly normally functioning persons. Patients who have been benefited by this operation constitute a somewhat unique group, since cardiac patients seldom experience so dramatic an improvement of their cardiac function. Although pati...

Introduction In postoperative cardiac patients, the incidence of conduction disturbances is between 1 to 4% depending on the complexity of the surgical procedure, the intraoperatory complications and the need for reintervention. These disorders lead to the need for electrical support, transient or permanent by a pacemaker. So far, there are few data in the literature regarding the potential fac...

Seventy-five years ago, a 7-year-old girl underwent the first successful ligation of a patent ductus arteriosus. This procedure transformed her health and was a milestone in the development of cardiac surgery. The operation was performed by Dr. Robert E. Gross, then the surgical chief resident at Boston Children's Hospital, who went on to have a distinguished career in pediatric surgery. The pa...

This study included U.S. Medicare patients who underwent major cardiac, vascular, gastro-intestinal and orthopedic surgical procedures in 2011. Using the CMS Inpatient Standard Analytical Files with 100% of claims for Medicare fee-forservice beneficiaries, patients were identified based on principal ICD-9-CM procedure code on the claim. Overall, 63 procedures codes in four categories (cardiac, ...

Postcardiotomy left ventricular failure (LVF) complicating a cardiac surgical procedure is usually managed with intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) counterpulsation. We report two cases of postcardiotomy LVF unresponsive to inotropic support and IABP counterpulsation that were managed successfully with the use of the TandemHeart percutaneous ventricular assist device (pVAD) (CardiacAssist, Pittsbur...

  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, i...