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Journal and News Scan
August 12, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
Many congenital heart diseases are tied to genetic defects and can lead to heart failure that requires heart transplant. This paper outlines the outcomes of transplants performed in children with such genetic syndromes and disorders and finds that, despite more preoperative comorbidities, midterm outcomes after heart transplant are promising.
August 12, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
According to the authors of this paper, surgical risk stratified outcomes after contemporary revascularization strategies have not been well described. This study outlines such outcomes after PCI or CABG in patients with multivessel coronary disease, which the authors say can help guide the revascularization strategy choice for individual patients.
August 12, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
Investigators in the CALGB 140503 recently presented the results of phase 3 of the trial at the IACSLC World Conference on Lung Cancer 2022 in Vienna. The results show that sub-lobar resection is noninferior to lobectomy with respect to disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with clinical stage T1a N0 non-small-cell lung cancer and tumors no larger than 2 cm, among other findings.
August 5, 2022
Submitted by: John Janesheski
This study was conducted among patients with presurgical atrial fibrillation who had undergone conventional sternotomy heart surgery, deriving from the Heart Surgery in Atrial Fibrillation and Supraventricular Tachycardia (HEIST) registry in Europe from 2010-2021. Investigators of the study sought to build on prior knowledge of preoperative atrial fibrillation procedures, where it is recognized the procedure increases risk for negative patient results following cardiac surgery. Namely, the study assessed long-term measures of mortality following surgical ablation that takes place prior to cardiac surgery procedures. Throughout the study, it was found that the use of concomitant surgical ablation was associated with a significant decrease in mortality: 16 percent compared with patients who had no ablation performed on them.
August 5, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
A Canadian court has found that if two doctors are working together, both can be liable for negligent medical treatment where one was in charge and the other was sufficiently involved.
The ruling resulted from a case involving an aortic rupture of a patient with a congenital heart condition during an angioplasty procedure. The cardiologist and vascular surgeon performing the procedure responded to the situation themselves, placing a covered stent to partially contain the patient's bleeding, rather than bringing in the hospital's cardiovascular surgery service to immediately perform a surgical repair.
The patient saw a cardiovascular surgeon several hours later and underwent surgery to successfully repair her aorta, but she experienced serious injuries. The judge found that the need for cardiovascular surgery was inevitable and imminent and ruled that the appellants' failure to seek immediate and proper care for the patient made them liable for her injuries.
August 5, 2022
Submitted by: John Janesheski
The topic of symptoms and conditions that result from prior COVID-19 infection over four weeks after infection is a great topic of concern. New research from the U.S. Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) aims to further assess potential risks for select children and adolescents. Whereas previous studies have characterized conditions in adults, this study builds on limited data among children and adolescents. The study assessed nine potential post-COVID signs and symptoms and fifteen potential post-COVID conditions among roughly 780 thousand laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 positive U.S. citizens aged 0–17 against over 2.3 million COVID-19 negative citizens of the same age bracket.
July 29, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
Cardiac operations after TAVR are increasing, and the interval between TAVR and operation is decreasing. Most cardiac operations are complex, high-risk reoperations, and isolated aortic valve replacement is rare. The findings in this study should be considered when TAVR is selected for low- to intermediate-risk patients, particularly with multiple cardiac pathologies not addressed by TAVR.
July 29, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
The world's first HIV-positive to HIV positive heart transplant was successfully performed in the United States in the early spring of this year. The patient, who was in her sixties, suffered from advanced heart failure. She received the organ donation at Montefiore Health System in the Bronx borough of New York City, one of only twenty-five centers in the US eligible to offer the surgery. The 2013 HIV Organ Policy Equity Act, which allowed people living with HIV to donate their organs to an HIV-positive recipient, paved the way for this type of surgery, though it has taken nearly ten years to become a reality for heart transplantation.
July 20, 2022
Submitted by: Mary Hammon
A year ago, a twelve-year-old girl became the youngest person in Canada undergo surgery to receive a total artificial heart. The device, which can essentially replace an entire human heart for a limited period of time, has only been used fifty-eight times in Canada to date. After receiving the device and a subsequent heart transplant a few months later, the patient has ongoing challenges but is now able to do many of the activities most kids her age do, including swimming four times a week.
July 15, 2022
Submitted by: Jessica Luc
In this article, the authors provide an expert opinion on the developments, current landscape, and direction in which ex vivo lung perfusion will undertake.