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Journal and News Scan
May 17, 2015
Submitted by: J. Rafael Sadaba
The question of whether digoxin increases the risk of death in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) or congestive heart failure (CHF) continues to be a matter of debate. The authors of this manuscript attempt to find an answer with a meta-analysis and systematic review of the literature. Overall, the analysis comprises data from 235.047 AF patients and 91.379 patients with CHF. The results indicate that digoxin therapy is associated with an increased mortality risk in these patients, particularly in those treated for AF.
May 17, 2015
Submitted by: Lisa Brown
The most recent WHO classification for lung adenocarcinoma is based on the predominant histologic subtype in the resected tumor. Several studies have validated the use of this classification system for prognostic purposes, but predicting response to adjuvant chemotherapy has not yet been tested. The goal of this study was to determine whether this classification can be used to predict benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in patients who have undergone complete surgical resection. The Lung Adjuvant Cisplatin Evalutaion Biomarker (LACE-Bio) collabortive group formed a large cohort of patients from four adjuvant chemotherapy clinical trials (n=552 for this study). Two groups were compared: acinar/papillary (n=247) and micropapillary/solid (n=305). Patients in the micropapillary/solid subgroup had a significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in terms of disease-free survival, whereas patients in the acinar/papillary subgroup did not.
May 17, 2015
Submitted by: Marcelo Jimenez
In this population-based cohort study with 1044 patients who underwent esophagectomy for esophageal cancer between 1987 and 2010 in Sweden, the researchers found that a higher number of lymph nodes removed did not affect mortality in any specific stage.
May 15, 2015
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
Nick Albus had transposition correction as a child and had to have a second operation in 2013. Now he is pushing to get in the state champoinships at 100m. Read his story here.
May 14, 2015
Submitted by: J. Rafael Sadaba
In this manuscript the authors describe their findings in an observational study of patients undergoing either aortic valve replacement with a “sutureless” aortic valve bioprosthesis (Medtronic’s 3f Enable) or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with either an Edwards Sapiens XT or Medtronic CoreValve prosthesis, comparing functional and clinical outcomes. Propensity score matching (80 patients) was performed to control selection bias.The findings suggest that transcatheter bioprostheses have a better hemodynamic profile than the 3f Enable valve in terms of effective orifice area index and mean transvalvular pressure gradient. However, aortic regurgitation was present more often after TAVI. The sutureless bioprosthesis was independently associated with patient-prosthesis mismatch at discharge. Nevertheless, these hemodynamic differences had no impact on the mid-term survival of the patients.
May 14, 2015
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
This is a comprehensive and we hope practical guide based on the experience of all the statistical reviewers of the EJCTS on how to address the statistical part of your research paper and how to write it up in order to make it as likely as possible to be accepted.
We hope you find this useful
May 13, 2015
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
Check out this great website that shows how to do a subxiphoid CABG and also a Subxiphoid ASD.
Really interesting. What do you think ?
Since 1995, surgeons and industry have been working hard to develop less invasive methods to
perform heart bypass surgery. Recently, Dr. Mark Levinson from Hutchinson, Kansas has
developed an advanced method for performing less invasive bypass surgery using a 4 inch
incision in the upper abdominal area. This method is called "Subxiphoid" bypass surgery.
Since Dr. Levinson uses mostly arteries for the bypass material (instead of leg veins), the formal
name for his surgery is "Subxiphoid Multi-Arterial Bypass Surgery".
NewOptionsInHeartSurgery.com provides a full description of this ground-breaking procedure.
Follow the links below to review the history, surgical technique, and current results of
Subxiphoid Multi-Arterial Bypass Surgery
Since 1995, surgeons and industry have been working hard to develop less invasive methods to
perform heart bypass surgery. Recently, Dr. Mark Levinson from Hutchinson, Kansas has
developed an advanced method for performing less invasive bypass surgery using a 4 inch
incision in the upper abdominal area. This method is called "Subxiphoid" bypass surgery.
Since Dr. Levinson uses mostly arteries for the bypass material (instead of leg veins), the formal
name for his surgery is "Subxiphoid Multi-Arterial Bypass Surgery".
NewOptionsInHeartSurgery.com provides a full description of this ground-breaking procedure.
Follow the links below to review the history, surgical technique, and current results of
Subxiphoid Multi-Arterial Bypass Surgery
May 12, 2015
Submitted by: CTSNet Staff
This video shows a mini-sternotomy and femoral vein cannulation in an aortic valve replacement. The patient was a 49-year-old male with severe aortic stenosis.
May 11, 2015
Submitted by: Arie Blitz
The authors conducted a retrospective review of two concurrent groups undergoing elective aortic transverse hemiarch reconstruction: Group DHCA underwent deep hypothermic circulatory arrest with retrograde cerebral perfusion; group MHCA underwent moderate hypothermic (>25 degrees C) circulatory arrest with antegrade cerebral perfusion. A total of 376 patients were included in their study. All preoperative demographics were similar, except the MHCA patients were significantly older. Intraoperative CPB and X-clamp times were significantly shorter for the MHCA group, and postoperative outcomes for both groups were excellent and equivalent. Hence--at least according to this retrospective single-center study--moderate hypothermia along with antegrade cerebral perfusion may be a viable strategy for patients undergoing elective hemiarch surgery.
May 10, 2015
Submitted by: Tom C. Nguyen
Patients with persisent or long-standing atrial fibrillation requiring mitral valve surgery were randomized to either surgical ablation or no ablation. Surgical ablation patients were further randomized to pulmonary vein isolation or biatrial MAZE. More surgical ablation patients were free from atrial fibrillation than control. There was no difference in atrial fibrillation in pulmonary vein isolation vs. biatrial MAZE.