In Global News: Emergency Windpipe Repair, Drug Use and Endocarditis, and Ticagrelor Versus Aspirin After CABG

Patient Care and General Interest
Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in the UAE used a metal stent for an emergency repair of a patient’s windpipe, which had been completely severed in a traffic accident.
A report from the UK Lung Cancer Coalition says that geographic variation persists despite improvements in 5-year survival rates for lung cancer in the UK.
 
Drugs and Devices
Medtronic has received the CE Mark for its Valiant Navion™ thoracic stent graft system, a low-profile thoracic stent for patients with small iliac arteries and other anatomic variations.
 
Research, Trials, and Funding
Physicians in Ontario, Canada, evaluate in-hospital counseling and surgery for injection drug users with endocarditis, finding that both reduce mortality in these patients.
Researchers at Stanford University in California are matching donor and pediatric recipient heart volumes using CT scans, rather than relying on height and weight to determine if a child could accept a particular donor heart.
At the recent meeting of the American Heart Association, researchers from Germany reported similar rates of major adverse cardiovascular events and major bleeding for patients taking either ticagrelor or aspirin after coronary artery bypass.