Patient Care
ALERT!
This site is not optimized for Internet Explorer 8 (or older).
Please upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer or use an alternate browser such as Chrome or Firefox.
Electrophysiology/arrhythmia
October 27, 2017
October 19, 2017
The authors review cybersecurity issues related to newer generations of pacemakers. Telemetric capabilities providing patient data to health care workers can be co-opted, enabling malicious software to endanger patients. Risks include intentional battery depletion and malicious reprogramming.
September 22, 2017
Patient Care
Updated guidelines on dual antiplatelet therapy in coronary artery disease have been published by the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and the European Society of Cardiology.
September 14, 2017
Samer Nashef of Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK discusses the indications for and variation in surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation.
September 7, 2017
Christopher Blauth of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, UK, gives a brief overview of results from a hybrid minimally invasive approach using the nContact/AtriCure device.
August 11, 2017
Patient Care
A heart team at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Ontario performs the first hybrid cardiac ablation for atrial fibrillation in Canada.
August 4, 2017
Patient Care
An Iraqi boy from Mosul went from Jordan to Australia for surgery to correct the blood flow through his heart and repair a hole between his ventricles.
August 1, 2017
Badhwar and colleagues analyzed the usage and outcomes of surgical ablation (SA) for atrial fibrillation reported in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons database. They found an incrementally increasing volume of SA procedures concomitant with cardiac operations like coronary artery bypass and valve repair/replacement over the 3-year period analyzed.
July 18, 2017
In this study, the Dabigatran reversal-drug Idarucizumab was tested. 503 patients were enrolled, of whom 202 had to undergo an urgent procedure. Of the patients requiring an urgent procedure, the median time of initiation of the procedure was 1.6 hours, and at that time periprocedural hemostasis was assessed as normal in 93.4% of the patients.
July 6, 2017
The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 35 RCTs analyzing the use of IV Mg for the prevention or treatment of arrhythmias following cardiac surgery. The studies included had significant methodological heterogeneity.