A retrospective Mount Sinai small series on selective emergent implantation of long-term ventricular assist devices in cardiogenic shock. It challenges the traditional concept of short-term stabilisation with ECMO or short-term support, and is likely to generate criticism and discussions.
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Critical Care
February 28, 2018
February 21, 2018
A well-written, brief, pessimistic editorial on the loss of surgeon autonomy in innovation.
February 14, 2018
Interesting article commenting on the perception that some remedies in medicine are so obviously beneficial that testing their effectiveness is a waste of time. As it turns out, many of what physicians think are "slam dunk" remedies have mixed or negative results.
February 8, 2018
Mark Bennett of the Southwest Cardiothoracic Unit in Plymouth, UK, discusses biomarkers for problems during cardiopulmonary bypass.
January 24, 2018
A well executed study on an important problem in cardiac surgery that merits careful reading, as no one-sentence conclusion can be adequately gleaned.
January 18, 2018
The authors describe a clinical unit developed at their institution designed to implement "nudges" to help improve health care delivery, primarily through the EMR. "Nudges" have been used to shape other behaviors, such as offering opt-out (rather than opt-in) for organ donor status to encourage increased organ donation. The concept was described
January 18, 2018
The authors summarize the rationale and utility of point of care ultrasonography for identifying factors associated with hypotension or hypoxia in a deteriorating surgical patient, including hypovolemia, LV dysfunction, PE, pleural fluid, ascites, etc. Their claim is that a variety of other diagnostic measures are less accurate, and that a single ul
January 10, 2018
The authors review their clinical experience with management of postoperative chylothorax among 97 patients. They favor duct ligation over embolization, and recommend intervention in patients with outputs greater than 1,100/day.
January 8, 2018
A very brief editorial on frailty as a risk factor. In the time of weighing transcatheter interventions versus variable access surgical options, quantifying this physiological concept is of major importance for the cardiac teams and, importantly, the autonomy of the patient.
January 8, 2018
A refreshing brief editorial comment on hydrohemodynamics on the occasion of critiquing a manuscript on related echocardiographic computations in neonates. The focus is on the Laplacean principles of compliance/elastance applied to the left ventricle.