INTRODUCTION Ortner's syndrome is defined as left recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy caused by a cardiovascular pathology. Here we report the case of a 68-year-old man who presented to our hospital with hoarseness, whose initial chest imaging mimicked a thoracic neoplastic process with left pleural effusion. The final diagnosis was Ortner's syndrome due to the silent rupture of a thoracoabdominal ...

Thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair are frequently associated with ischemic paraplegia, renal failure and death. In order to decrease the incidence of ischemic events and allow for a longer aortic cross clamp time, we combined our previous technique of segmental sequential repair, left heart bypass and cerebral spinal fluid drainage in conjunction with moderate hypothermia (30°...

BACKGROUND Paraplegia is a devastating complication for patients undergoing repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. A monitor to detect spinal cord ischemia is necessary if anesthesiologists are to intervene to protect the spinal cord during aortic aneurysm clamping. METHODS The medical records of 60 patients who underwent thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair with regional lumbar epid...

Spinal cord deficit (SCD) is a feared complication after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Vigilant management throughout the perioperative period necessary to reduce risk of SCD. Measures for preventing SCD during intraoperative include preoperative optimization and recognizing patients at higher In this manuscript, we discuss adjuncts including utilization cerebrospinal fluid drainage,...

High operative mortality of infected thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (ITAA) is partly attributable to ischemic injury during aortic clamping. We report a 62-year-old man with biliary cirrhosis, who developed a rapidly enlarging ITAA secondary to thoracolumbar osteomyelitis. Additional infectious foci were found in the pubic and ischial bones and in the left lung. Blood cultures gave growth of...

OBJECTIVE Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse biological processes, such as transcriptional regulation, cell growth and tumorigenesis. However, little was known about whether lncRNA HIF 1 alpha-antisense RNA 1 (HIF1a-AS1) in regulating the proliferation and apoptosis of VSMCs in vitro and the expression of HIF1a-AS1 in serum of TAA patients. METHODS The cell viabili...

Introduction: Postoperative neurological deficit is the most devastating complication after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Despite demonstrated neuroprotective effects of estradiol, its protective efficacy against spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion and underlying mechanisms are not yet elucidated. Methods: Two groups, each of 10 New Zealand white male rabbits, were studied. Control grou...

A 74-year old woman sought medical attention for general symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and back pain. A computed tomographic scan showed gas in the wall of the descending thoracic and suprarenal aortas. Emergency thoracoabdominal exploration revealed a necrotizing infection of the thoracic aorta extending to the origin of the celiac axis. After surgery Clostridium septicum was identified in tis...