Clinical Presentation and Outcome of Patients With Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection Versus Atherosclerotic Coronary Plaque Dissection.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic coronary plaque dissection (ACPD) is one cause of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) caused by underlying atherosclerosis. Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) occurs outside the setting of atherosclerosis among young women and individuals with few or no conventional atherosclerotic risk factors, and has emerged as an important cause of ACS, and sudden death. A comparison between ACPD and SCAD has not been previously addressed in the literature. Our study will compare ACPD and SCAD. METHODS: Patients with confirmed diagnosis of SCAD and ACPD were retrospectively identified from 30 centers in 4 Arab Gulf countries between January 2011 and December 2017. In-hospital (ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation, myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous coronary intervention, dissection extension, cardiogenic shock, death, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement) and follow-up (MI, de novo SCAD, spontaneous superior mesenteric artery dissection, death) events were compared between them. RESULTS: Eighty-three cases of SCAD and 48 ACPD were compared. ACPD patients were more frequently male (91.67% vs. 49.40%, P < 0.001) and older (58.5 vs. 44, P < 0.001). Cardiovascular risk factors were more prevalent in patients with ACPD, including diabetes mellitus (60.4% vs. 25.3%), dyslipidemia (62.5% vs. 38.5%), and hypertension (62.5% vs. 31.3%), P < 0.001. Hospital presentation of ST-elevation MI was diagnosed in 48% of SCAD versus 27% of ACPD patients (P = 0.012). SCAD patients received medical-only treatment in 40% of cases and ACPD in 21% (P = 0.042). In-hospital and follow-up events were comparable in both groups (P = 0.25). CONCLUSIONS: Despite a completely different pathophysiology of ACS between SCAD and ACPD, in-hospital and follow-up events were comparable.

Outcomes of Primary Bidirectional Glenn in Children with Single Ventricle Physiology and Increased Pulmonary Blood Flow.

BACKGROUND: We reported our experience in managing patients with single ventricle (SV) physiology and increased pulmonary blood flow (PBF), aiming to assess if it is feasible to proceed with primary Bidirectional Glenn (BDG) without a prior operation to limit PBF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study with 51 consecutive patients who underwent BDG operation as a primary operation or a second stage prior to the definitive Fontan operation at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2018. Patients were categorized into two groups based on their PBF prior to the operation: Patients who had SV physiology and increased PBF (seven patients) vs. patients with SV physiology and restricted PBF (44 patients). RESULTS: The median age for the increased PBF group was 9.9 months [interquartile range (IQR): 2-16.9 months], and the median age for the restricted PBF group was 15.3 months (IQR: 6.7-42.6 months). Although the length of hospital stay was longer in patients with increased PBF (P = 0.039), we couldn't find a statistically significant difference in early mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of pleural drainage, and length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay between the groups. CONCLUSION: In our experience, we found that primary BDG could be done safely for patients having SV physiology and increased PBF with acceptable short-term outcomes. It might further reduce the morbidity and mortality for those patients by avoiding the risk of initial pulmonary artery banding or aortopulmonary shunts.

Anesthesia for tracheostomy for huge maxillofacial tumor.

Providing sedation for patients with compromised upper airway is challenging. A 19-year-old female patient with huge maxillofacial tumor invading the whole pharynx scheduled for elective tracheostomy under local anesthesia due to compromised airway. The patient had gastrostomy tube for feeding. Venous cannulation was totally refused by the patient after repeated trials for exhausted sclerosed veins. Pre-operative mixture of dexmedetomidine with ketamine was administered through the gastrostomy tube with eutectic mixture of local anesthetics cream application over the planned tracheostomy site. The patient was sedated with eye opening to command. Local infiltration followed by tracheostomy was performed without patient complaints or recall of operative events.