Cardiac surgery has been a vibrant field since the early pioneering procedures were attempted, became successful, and eventually reproducible. From the successful closure of a patent ductus arteriosus in 1938 and the Blalock-Taussig shunt, discovery and innovation have been the hallmarks of cardiac surgery. Dr John Gibbon’s first clinical use of the heart lung machine in 1953 opened the door to...

A sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (SOVA) is an uncommon cardiac anomaly occurring in less than 1% of patients undergoing open cardiac surgical procedures (1). Approximately 65-85% of SOVAs originate from the right sinus of Valsalva, while SOVAs originating from noncoronary (10-30%) and left sinuses (<5%) are less common (2). It may be congenital or acquired in origin and may rupture into any of the ...

OBJECTIVE DiGeorge syndrome is a genetic disorder with multisystem involvement resulting in craniofacial and cardiac anomalies and parathyroid and immune system dysfunction. This study describes perioperative management of a large cohort of patients with DiGeorge syndrome undergoing cardiac surgery. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Major academic tertiary institution. PARTICIPAN...

Hemostatic procedures and control of blood pressure concomitant with rapid transfusion of blood products aimed at recovery of coagulability are necessary for intractable bleeding during cardiac surgery. However, when the bleeding is massive and hemostasis is prolonged for several hours, operative maneuvers such as manual compression of the heart can affect hemodynamics, decrease cardiac output,...

Background Nowadays, the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) followed by systemic hypothermia is common in cardiac surgery procedures. CPB causes a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) that is markedly expressed in congenital caridiosurgical surgery programe resulting with deleterious consequences. Those effects are mediated through cytokines and others mediators of acute inflammatory...

BACKGROUND Deep and superficial sternal wound infections (DSWI & SWI) following cardiac surgery increase morbidity, mortality and cost. Autologous platelet rich plasma (PRP) derived from the patient's own blood has been used in other surgical settings to promote successful wound healing. The goal of this study was to analyze the addition of PRP using a rapid point of care bedside system to stan...

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ National Cardiac Database (NCD), which is housed and managed at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, has set the standard for effective professional society–sponsored clinical registries. Nearly 90% of US hospitals performing cardiac surgery participate in the NCD. In addition to accruing mortality and morbidity outcomes information from 3.6 million cardiac su...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the routine of emergency centers around world, including in Brazil, where crisis affected volume major cardiac surgeries such as coronary artery bypass grafting. Objective To analyze impact on number surgical procedures for grafting Brazil. Methods An ecological, cross-sectional, quantitative, and descriptive study was conducted. Data period from J...

Introduction In a normovolemic patient, low cardiac output after cardiac surgery may be a result of myocardial ischaemia and/ or pericardial tamponade. However, without any objective evidence of ischaemia alongwith no signs of pericardial tamponade or regional wall motion abnormality on transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE), the diagnosis remains ambiguous. Computed tomography (CT scan) of the che...

The Gdansk Hybrid Heartlink Programme follows the concept of the hybrid procedures that combine the advantages of classic surgical operations with intraoperative cardiology interventions. With time and our growing experience, we found that hybrid methods were especially beneficial in cardiac emergencies in borderline babies, who would not meet separate criteria either for surgery or for cardiac...