postoperative low cardiac output states are a major cause of postoperative mortality in infants and children following corrective cardiac surgery or congenital heart defects. whole body hypothermia has been used since 2001 in the management of these low output states when they are refractory to conventional modes of therapy. from december 2001 to april 2006, 25 cases were included in this study...

In this article we describe the esophageal Doppler, a noninvasive, instantaneous cardiac output monitor. Its reliability has been demonstrated to be comparable to that of other current techniques used in the clinical arena to measure cardiac output. It helps guiding intravascular fluid resuscitation by quantifying the increase in flow in response to fluid challenges and by indicating the platea...

T he National Service Framework (NSF) for coronary heart disease (CHD) states that: " By international standards, the UK has high rates of CHD but low rates of coronary artery revascularisation. This does not appear to be because most other countries are over-using revascularisation but rather there has been under-provision of revascularisation in the UK. Another major difference between the UK...

BACKGROUND Triiodothyronine (T(3)) supplementation may be a useful adjunct in the management of patients after cardiopulmonary bypass. Limited data are available regarding the use and pharmacokinetics of T(3) in children. The present study was performed to evaluate T(3) pharmacokinetics in a cohort of children undergoing the modified Fontan procedure. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 28 patient...

  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...

echinococcus infection typically affects liver and lungs while rarely occur through heart. cardiac hydatidosis can be fatal or lead to major complications if it is not treated. the majority of patients with cardiac hydatid cysts complain from cardiac problems as their first presentation. however, this article reports an unusual case suffers from an interventricular hydatid cyst presented by abd...

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...