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Journal and News Scan
August 20, 2021
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
It is generally necessary to implant a permanent pacemaker (PPM) in 1% to 5% of patients undergoing cardiac surgery due to conduction disturbances. The authors of this study sought to discover whether PPM implantation timing and particular conduction disturbances are linked to the need for a permanent pacemaker. They concluded that implanting a PPM on postoperative day 7 was optimal for preventing unnecessary implantations and long-term hospitalizations.
August 16, 2021
Submitted by: Alexander Nissen
This is the largest analysis of COVID-19 related impact on adult cardiac surgery volume, trends, and outcomes. During the pandemic, cardiac surgery volume suffered dramatically, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions during the first COVID-19 surge, with a concurrent increase in observed-to-expected 30-day mortality.
August 14, 2021
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
Interesting multi-center RCT that paves the way for potential paradigm shifts in antithrombotic modulation. The abcence of symptomatic pulmonary embolism warrants further investigation...
August 13, 2021
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
This study used data from 6600 lung resections performed in the UK between 2012 and 2018 to develop a prediction model for 90-day mortality after lung resection.
August 12, 2021
Submitted by: Catherine Joyce
This study focused on FET proximalization used in combination with four-sites perfusion and results show that these techniques when performed together have the potential to improve patient outcomes in terms of survival and major events.
August 12, 2021
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Although the standard of care in the West for regionally advanced esophageal cancer entails induction therapy, this is routinely not the case in China. This randomized trial involving over 450 randomized participants to induction therapy (vinorelbine, cisplatin, 40 Gy RT) followed by resection vs resection alone. At a median f/u of 53.5 mos, trimodality therapy demonstrated overall (HR 0.74; CI 0.57-0.97) and disease free (HR 0.60; CI 0.45 to 0.80) survival advantages compared to surgery alone. This study may establish a new standard of care for management of resectable regionally advanced esophageal cancer in China.
August 6, 2021
Submitted by: Catherine Joyce
This study examined data that suggested off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) may carry a higher risk of mortality in the long term than on-pump coronary artery bypass (ONCAB).
August 6, 2021
Submitted by: Catherine Joyce
This study focused on the anatomical evolution of residual aortic dissection after type A repair. To improve long-term outcomes, early demographic and anatomic poor prognostic factors that were identified in this study should be considered for more aggressive treatment at an early phase.
August 6, 2021
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
In contrast to traditional risk assessment methods (logistic regression), which assume that risk factors interact linearly and additively,
the non-linear machine learning methodology of Optimal Classification Trees provides superior power for predicting risks after
congenital heart surgery, with the advantage over other machine learning methods of logical interpretability. This methodology also
allows estimation of individual patient risk, based on aggregate database data, and may facilitate decision–making and quality
improvements in congenital heart surgery.
July 30, 2021
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
Norwood palliation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome typically results in retrograde perfusion of the native aortic root. This may predispose to native aortic root thrombosis (NART).