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Journal and News Scan
April 19, 2022
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
Interesting manuscript on the immunology of coronary atheroma, with tanslational potential in therapies and prevention of ischaemic heart disease.
April 14, 2022
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
This 10-year follow-up of the ROBY study reports on the primary end points of all-cause death and the composite of death or revascularization among 2203 patients randomized to off-pump or on-pump CABG 2002-2007. Death rates at 10 years were 34.2% for off-pump and 31.1% for on-pump. The composite end point was reached at 4.6 years for off-pump and 5.0 years for on-pump. The study identified no advantages for off-pump bypass related to these 10-year outcomes.
April 12, 2022
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
Segmentectomy is rising in popularity as a parenchyma-sparing alternative for anatomic lung resection. This study sought to investigate temporal changes in patient selection, case volume, and outcomes for segmentectomy using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) National Database.
April 12, 2022
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
This study both examined the outcomes of children (<18 years) operated on for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) and linked patients undergoing ALCAPA repair between 1982 and 2003 in the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium with the National Death Index and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to examine their outcomes through 2019.
April 9, 2022
Submitted by: Jessica Luc
This study from the Canadian Ross Registry evaluated 466 consecutive patients who underwent a Ross procedure using a decellularized cryopreserved pulmonary homograft and evaluated for pulmonary homograft dysfunction. They demonstrate that the cumulative incidence of pulmonary homograft dysfunction was 11% at 6 years with pulmonary homograft stenosis (93%) being the most frequent cause, with an incidence of homograft reintervention of 3% at 6 years.
April 8, 2022
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons current (STS) guidelines recommend delaying coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) for several days or performing platelet function testing in stable patients who received P2Y12 inhibitors. Their program routinely uses thromboelastography-platelet mapping (TEG-PM) to expedite CABG in P2Y12 nonresponders. They hypothesize that P2Y12 nonresponders had no difference in length of stay to surgery and blood product transfusion compared with patients undergoing urgent inpatient CABG not treated with a P2Y12 inhibitor.
April 8, 2022
Submitted by: Christopher Anderson
Readmission after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is linked with negative outcomes and raised cost. We evaluated the impact of a high-value care discharge protocol on readmission, length of stay (LOS), and discharge destination in patients undergoing isolated CABG.
April 5, 2022
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
A brief but comprehensive editorial on nuances of the links between atrial fibrillation and heart failure, apropos a trial we have commented recently on, by the Johns Hopkins team that develops the calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II inhibitor molecules
March 30, 2022
Submitted by: Emily Farkas
Every year, millions of people are dying and millions more are disabled due to treatable cardiovascular diseases. Surgical capacity is unevenly distributed around the world and disproportionally affects populations in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). COVID-19 increases barriers for access to cardiac surgical care, and high- level action is urgently needed to not only expand cardiac services around the world but also to ensure health systems are strengthened so that cardiac patients can be effectively managed during and after the pandemic. The primary aim of this systematic review is to provide perioperative strategies to help restore or preserve cardiovascular services in LMICs under threat from financial and personnel constraints imposed by the pandemic.
March 30, 2022
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
Interesting case-control study on variations of aortovascular compliance