ALERT!
This site is not optimized for Internet Explorer 8 (or older).
Please upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer or use an alternate browser such as Chrome or Firefox.
Journal and News Scan
August 24, 2018
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
Patient Care and General Interest
A new study finds that elderly heart surgery patients who exhibit postoperative delirium are sometimes given antipsychotic medications, which are ineffective and may even be dangerous.
A 5-month-old child in St. Louis, Missouri, becomes the youngest documented heart-lung transplant patient in more than a decade.
A 3-year-old boy from Germany with a rare congenital heart disease travelled all the way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to undergo a complex procedure.
Drugs and Devices
The first clinical use of FRAME external support technology for aneurysm repair in high flow arteriovenous (AV) fistulas took place in Germany.
Research, Trials, and Funding
A Harvard study regarding cardiothoracic surgery operating teams suggests that variations in interpersonal and leadership communication patterns may have a strong effect on teamwork.
A novel technique tested at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center allows damaged lungs to be placed on a machine that keeps them alive at normal body temperature, allowing doctors to better assess whether they are viable.
August 24, 2018
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
Nguyen and colleagues evaluated whether left atrium (LA) enlargement in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was reversed after septal myectomy. The authors retrospectively reviewed transthoracic echocardiographic measurements of LA volume index from 656 patients who underwent myectomy over eight years at their center. Only patients with both preoperative and postoperative measurements were included. The authors noted both early reduction in LA volume index prior to hospital discharge, and late reduction at two-year follow-up, which they suggest is indicative of continued reverse remodeling. The severity of preoperative mitral regurgitation and the risk of postoperative atrial fibrillation were associated with preoperative LA volume index, but the risks of postoperative stroke and survival were not.
August 23, 2018
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
A brief, useful editorial advancing the position of watchful waiting in selected aneurysmopathic patients, on the occasion of new AATS guideline on bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) aortopathy.
August 22, 2018
Submitted by: Emily Robinson
This video and article detail the author’s technique for the classic hybrid arch debranching procedure. It is performed for patients who have had a prior type A dissection repair with aortic arch and descending thoracic aortic dilation but who are not felt to be candidates for more extensive hybrid repairs that require total arch replacement. Hughes emphasizes the importance of appropriate patient selection for the success of this type I hybrid arch repair and discusses his center’s selection criteria.
August 21, 2018
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
For high volume surgeons (defined as 20 or more annual lobectomies), the use of a robotic approach had a lower conversion to open rate and a lower complication rate, while having a mean operating time that was 25 min longer on average compared to a VATS approach.
August 21, 2018
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
This cautionary article outlines new trends in how the courts view surgeon responsibility for obtaining informed consent.
August 20, 2018
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
This provocative editorial outlines concepts that thoracic surgeons should understand in the era of immunotherapy for potentially resectable N2 disease.
August 20, 2018
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
This is an instructive editorial that reminds us of the challenges women face in CT surgery. It describes how to go beyond the social online movement to achieve practical changes in training, hiring, and mentoring.
August 18, 2018
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
Have a look at V.MED.TV ( link below), including more amazing videos from China.
This is one of the best videos. It demonstrates a wonderful subsegmental resection with immaculate preoperative planning. We need to continue to learn segmental surgery from these amazing Chinese surgeons.
http://v.medtv.cc/videos.php?cat=12&sort=most_recent&time=all_time&seo_c...
August 17, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Patient Care and General Interest
A congenital heart surgeon in Boston, Massachusetts, was once a patient himself.
A team at the ADK hospital in the Maldives has performed the country’s first coronary artery bypass surgery.
A woman receiving a heart-lung transplant was also able to donate her heart, and she met the woman who received her heart at the Transplant Games of America.
The American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon became the first in the country to perform a pulmonary thromboendarterectomy.
Drugs and Devices
Boston Scientific has announced progress toward new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its Lotus Edge valve.
An investigational treatment for bronchiolitis obliterans, which can occur in patients who receive a lung transplant, has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the US FDA.
Research, Trials, and Funding
An analysis of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Registry found diabetes to be a predictor of poor transplant-free survival in patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as adults.