Cosmetic surgery is the epitome of elective surgery. Our patients seek us out to improve their physical appearance, which may, in turn, enhance their quality of life. Despite the exhaustive informed consent process, the safety of the procedures is implicit in the minds of our patients. Is cosmetic plastic surgery as safe as it can be? Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are among the mo...

The contour of the pulmonary artery wedge pressure tracing in a case of pulmonary venous obstruction was unique and may be diagnostic. Wedged pressures were obtained in both a pulmonary artery and a pulmonary vein on recatheterization of a 5-yearold boy with total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage to the superior vena cava on whom an anastomosis of the confluence of the pulmonary veins to the...

BACKGROUND To elucidate the pathophysiological significance of endothelin in pulmonary hypertension associated with congenital heart defects, we measured plasma endothelin-like immunoreactivity (ET-LI) concentrations by using radioimmunoassay in 18 patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH group; age, 6 months to 12 years) in comparison with 27 patients without pulmonary hypertension (non-PH gro...

that occurs almost exclusively in young children with or without various forms of congenital heart disease (1). Pulmonary vein stenosis in the adults is very rare, and the small number of reported cases has often been associated with mediastinal processes such as neoplasms or fibrosing mediastinitis (2, 3). Recently, stenosis has appeared as a complication of radiofrequency ablation procedures ...

BACKGROUND Cryoballon isolation of the pulmonary veins has recently emerged as a promissing technique for ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). AIM To present our initial experience in cryoballon isolatin of the pulmonary veins in patients with AF. METHODS Eight patients (5 males; age 59+/-2 years) with AF: 2 with persistent and 6 with paroxysmal (5 of them after unsuccessful RF ablation) w...

1 of 2 DESCRIPTION A 54-year-old lady was admitted with breathlessness since 2 months (NYHA class 3). She was previously diagnosed to have rheumatic heart disease (RHD), but was not on any medications. Her chest radiograph revealed evidence of main pulmonary artery dilatation and unilateral upper lobe venous prominence (cephalisation) on the right side ( fi gure 1A ). Echocardiogram showed part...