A near-fatal case of pyoderma gangrenosum following coronary artery bypass surgery.

A 58-year-old man on azathioprine with a history of ulcerative colitis underwent urgent coronary artery bypass grafting following a myocardial infarction, via a median sternotomy and open harvesting of the long saphenous vein. On postoperative day 5, he developed severe and progressive sternal and leg wound ulceration and necrosis, unresponsive to intravenous antibiotics and requiring surgical debridement. He developed septic shock requiring intensive therapy unit admission. Microbiology was negative and histology supported a diagnosis of pyoderma gangrenosum. Unresponsive to azathioprine and steroid therapy, he underwent a successful skin graft to the leg wound and pectoral reconstruction of the sternal wound.

Spontaneous splenic rupture following mitral valve replacement for infective endocarditis successfully managed with splenic artery embolisation.

We report a rare case of infective endocarditis complicated by postoperative splenic rupture. A patient underwent urgent mitral valve replacement for infective endocarditis believed to be associated with a recent spinal surgical intervention. The patient developed haemodynamic compromise on the third day postoperatively. Computed tomography showed a splenic rupture as the cause. The patient underwent emergency radiological intervention with coil embolization avoiding the need for a splenectomy and was discharged home.

An unusual cause of heart failure in a young female: a case of massive left atrial mxyoma.

Benign cardiac tumors are rare; they can present with nonspecific symptoms and represent a diagnostic challenge to the clinician. We describe an interesting case of a 26-year-old female who presented with a 6-month history of cough, breathlessness, palpitations, dizziness, and fever. Despite repeated clinical reviews in the community, diagnosis of cardiac tumor was not made until she developed decompensated cardiac failure with bilateral pleural effusions and pulmonary edema. Echocardiogram revealed an enormous left atrial mass that extended one-third into left ventricle during systole. The patient underwent successful surgical resection with histological confirmation of a benign atrial myxoma.

Concomitant severe carotid and coronary artery diseases: a separate management or concomitant approach.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically compare outcomes between patients with asymptomatic carotid artery diseases (>80% stenosis) that had undergone staged carotid endarterectomy (CEA) before coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) vs simultaneous CEA and CABG. METHODS: A comprehensive electronic search of MEDLINE, Scopus, EMBASE, and Ovid from their inception up till August 2018 was performed to identify all studies comparing staged CEA followed by CABG to simultaneous CEA and CABG. Primary outcome measure was postoperative stroke, and secondary measures were myocardial infarction (MI) and 30-day mortality rates. RESULTS: A total of 67 953 patients were analyzed from 11 articles. There was higher rate of previous stroke in the staged cohort (2.64% vs 2.32%; odds ratio [OR], 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.66, 0.99]; P = .040). There was no difference in previous MI (P = .57) or unstable angina (P = .08) among both cohorts. Postoperatively, there were higher stroke rates (3.64% vs 2.83%; OR, 0.72; 95% CI [0.62-0.89]; P < .0001), operative mortality (4.32% vs 3.58%; OR, 0.90; 95% CI [0.83-0.98]; P = .02), and 30-day mortality (4.40% vs 3.58%; OR, 0.86; 95% CI [0.78-0.96]; P = .006) in the simultaneous cohort. However, length of stay was significantly shorter in the simultaneous cohort (11.9 days vs 12.6 days; weighted mean difference 3.14 [0.77-5.51]; P = .009). There were no significant differences in 1-year mortality (P = .33), MI rates (P = .08), and rates of transient neurological deficits (P = .06). CONCLUSION: The results from this study favors staged CEA with CABG with lower incidence of postoperative stroke, operative, and 30-day mortality. A larger study, ideally a randomized controlled trial, is required to address the superiority of each technique.

International guideline changes and the incidence of infective endocarditis: a systematic review.

The objective of this study was to determine the impact on incident infective endocarditis (IE) of guideline recommendations to restrict indications for antibiotic prophylaxis. We conducted a systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched for articles published between 2007 and 2015 using mesh terms relevant to the research question. Included were English language articles published after 2009 that provided estimates of IE incidence before-and-after major international guideline changes. Seven studies were identified: 1 conducted in France, 4 in the USA and 2 in the UK. Only 1 study reported an increase in the rate of incident IE following guideline modification, and the remainder showed no change in upward (2 studies) or downward (4 studies) incidence trends. Study quality was generally poor for answering the question posed in this review, with serious risk of bias related to diagnostic ascertainment and unavailability of population risk data to adjust the incidence estimates. Moreover, the studies were often small, and relevant bacteriological data were not always available. Only 2 reported changes in antibiotic prescriptions, but these data were not linked to health records making it impossible to determine causal relations to changes in incident IE. The studies in this review were heterogenous in their design and variably limited by study size, duration of follow-up, diagnostic ascertainment, and absence of relevant prescription and bacteriological data. The studies were inconsistent in their conclusions and it remains uncertain what, if any, has been the impact of antibiotic prophylaxis guideline changes on the incidence of IE.