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Journal and News Scan

Source: www.miniheartvalves.com
Author(s): Mario Castillo-Sang, Tom C. Nguyen, Rochus K. Voeller

This free online course provides a series of step-wise presentations for developing a minimally invasive valve program with contributions from experts in the fielid. 

Source: World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery
Author(s): Richard D. Mainwaring, MD, William L. Patrick, MD, Mihir Dixit, Akhil Rao, BA, Michal Palmon, BS, MPH, Tristan Margetson, CCP, John J. Lamberti, MD, Frank L. Hanley, MD

Techniques of unifocalization and pulmonary artery reconstructions have been developed to treat complex disorders of pulmonary artery development. The objective of this study was to document the prevalence of complications in these patients. The data demonstrate that the median value for duration of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was 473 minutes, number of complications was five, and length of stay was 24 days. Major adverse cardiac events occurred in 11% of patients. Notably, while complications were relatively frequent, the overall outcomes were generally favorable. Importantly, CPB time had a poor correlation with total number of complications and hospital length of stay; a finding that is different from what has been observed in relation to other complex congenital or adult cardiac operations.

Source: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
Author(s): Ourania Preventza, MD, Andre Critsinelis, MD, Katherine Simpson, MS, Jacqueline K. Olive, BA, Scott A. LeMaire, MD, Lorraine D. Cornwell, MD, Ernesto Jimenez, MD, John Byrne, MD, Subhasis Chatterjee, MD, Todd K. Rosengart, MD, Joseph S. Coselli, MD

In this important article published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery by Drs. Preventza et al, they report on the sex, racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular trials in the US. The authors conclude that targeted focus and leadership is needed in addressing these disparities to ensure that the population studied in cardiovascular trials is consistent with the patient population that we treat. 

Source: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
Author(s): Mara B. Antonoff, MD, Brian Mitzman, MD, Leah Backhus, MD, Scott T. Bradbury, MS, Subhasis Chatterjee, MD, David T. Cooke, MD, Juan Crestanello, MD, Andrew B. Goldstone, MD, PhD, Karen M. Kim, MD, Tom C. Nguyen, MD, Jennifer C. Romano, MD, Ara A. Vaporciyan, MD, MHPE, Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS

This article from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Virtual Conference Taskforce provides recommendations applicable to all virtual meetings and beyond with focused dicscussion on timezones, diversity/inclusion and how to optimize participant interactivity and networking. 

Read the full article in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery here at this link -> https://www.annalsthoracicsurgery.org/article/S0003-4975(20)31816-6/fulltext

Source: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
Author(s): Ashley Y. Choi, MHS, Oliver K. Jawitz, MD, Vignesh Raman, MD, Samantha E. Halpern, BA, John C. Haney, MD, Jacob A. Klapper, MD, and Matthew G. Hartwig, MD

This article examines the use of lungs from older donors and associated survival of recipients.

Source: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Author(s): Elizabeth L. Norton, David M. Williams,Karen M. Kim, Minhaj S. Khaja, Xiaoting Wu, Himanshu J. Patel, Michael Deeb, Bo Yang, MD, PhDc

The initial experience from Ann Arbor throughout a quarter of a century in malperfusion syndrome from type B (De Bakey III) aortic dissection is presented in this paper, juxtaposing early fenestrating and adjunct endovascular techniques to conservative treatments.

Half of the relatively young patients were not alive after ten years, although radiological success was claimed in more than nine out of ten cases.

The growing interest in early intervention for type B, and the advances in endovascular and hybrid solutions for aortic disease will rend this retrospective manuscript an interesting read.

Source: Pfizer Press Release
Author(s): Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE

In a press release early this morning, Pfizer and BioNTech accounced the results of their vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 in the first interim efficacy analysis of its Phase 3 clinical study.

This vaccine candiate, BNT162b2, was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in 94 participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. 

Source: European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
Author(s): Daniele Linardi, Beat Walpoth, Romel Mani, Angela Murari, Maddalena Tessari, Stiljan Hoxha, Marco Anderloni, Ilaria Decimo, Sissi Dolci, Elena Nicolato, Pietro Bontempi, Flavia Merigo, Giovanni B Luciani, Giuseppe Faggian, Alessio Rungatscher

This original article by Linardi et al. analysis the outcome of slow versus fast rewarming after hypothermic circulatory arrest in a rat model. They observed reduced inflammatory and oxidative stress and also a higher cerebral blood flow within the slow rewarming group compared to the fast rewarming group. Therefore they suspect slow rewarming might be superior regarding neurologic outcome after hypothermic circulatory arrest.

Source: Medscape
Author(s): Deborah Cohen and Ed Brown

This hard hitting article summarises the current situation with the Excel trial and the situation regarding the evidence of PCI vs CABG in left main stem disease. 

It exposes a legion of errors and scandals which were first exposed by Professor David Taggart then the BBC then EACTS. 

It lists the 30% of the writing taskforces declaration of interest with stent manufacturers

It finally reports the possible resolution by a change in the guidelines which is now being planned. 

Source: Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Author(s): Christopher K. Mehta, S. Chris Malaisrie, Ashley N. Budd, Yutaka Okita, Hitoshi Matsuda, Fernando Fleischman, Yuichi Ueda, Joseph E. Bavaria, and Marc R. Moon

This joint consensus document aims to facilitate triage and management of patients with aortic dissection, rupture, and malperfusion syndromes during the  COVID-19 pandemic. The following issues have been addressed in the care of COVID-19–positive or status unknown patients with aortic emergencies:

1. Management and triage

2. Management of interfacility transfers

3. Preoperative considerations to minimize risk to health care personnel 

4. Important anesthetic considerations

5. Precautions to be taken by surgical personnel during the procedure

6. Postoperative considerations

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