[Total artificial heart: past, present, and future]. / Cuore artificiale totale: passato, presente e futuro.

Every year, approximately 5 out of 1000 patients receive a diagnosis of advanced heart failure, with a prevalence of 1-2% in the adult population. This figure is likely underestimated, considering undiagnosed cases. Despite significant progress in medical therapy for heart failure, mortality rates persist around 20% within the first year, reaching 50-60% at 5 years from the initial diagnosis. For patients with severe end-stage heart failure, the 1-year mortality rate can reach up to 70%. Heart transplantation remains the preferred treatment for terminal stages of the disease; however, the significant challenge lies in the mismatch between available donors and recipients. Given this dilemma, both short-term solutions including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and long-term options such as left ventricular assist devices have gained prominence. These mechanical circulatory support systems become crucial for patients in critical conditions, temporarily ineligible for heart transplantation, such as those with severe irreversible pulmonary hypertension or acute organ failure. Despite these advancements, a growing number of patients on the waiting list develops severe biventricular dysfunction, precluding the use of a left ventricular assist device as a bridge to transplant. In such cases, a total artificial heart emerges as a viable therapeutic option.

[Surgical treatment of isolated tricuspid valve disease: indications, new evidence, and risk stratification]. / Trattamento cardiochirurgico della patologia tricuspidale isolata: indicazioni, nuove evidenze e stratificazione del rischio.

The tricuspid valve, long neglected as a passive structure and often termed the "forgotten valve", has recently gained attention from the international medical and cardiological community due to the association of tricuspid regurgitation with an unfavorable prognosis. Isolated tricuspid regurgitation represents a relatively unknown and variable condition, closely linked to the shape and function of the right ventricle and the state of the pulmonary circulation. Currently, guidelines are not clear regarding the optimal treatment strategy, the process of patient selection, and the surgical or transcatheter procedural timing, nor for predicting patient outcomes. Surgical procedures specifically aimed at correcting isolated tricuspid regurgitation, without other concomitant indications for open-heart surgery, have been considered complex and risky, with a high rate of postoperative complications and a poorly understood impact on patient survival and life expectancy. In this review, we will attempt to examine tricuspid valve pathology by analyzing preoperative assessment, essential for risk stratification, various surgical techniques, and outcomes.

Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy for Prevention of Sternal Wound Infection after Adult Cardiac Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The results of current studies are not conclusive on the efficacy of incisional negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) for the prevention of sternal wound infection (SWI) after adult cardiac surgery. A systematic review of the literature was performed through PubMed, Scopus and Google to identify studies which investigated the efficacy of NPWT to prevent SWI after adult cardiac surgery. Available data were pooled using RevMan and Meta-analyst with random effect models. Out of 191 studies retrieved from the literature, ten fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this analysis. The quality of these studies was judged fair for three of them and poor for seven studies. Only one study was powered to address the efficacy of NPWT for the prevention of postoperative SWI. Pooled analysis of these studies showed that NPWT was associated with lower risk of any SWI (4.5% vs. 9.0%, RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34-0.84, I2 48%), superficial SWI (3.8% vs. 4.4%, RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.29-1.36, I2 65%), and deep SWI (1.8% vs. 4.7%, RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.26-0.74, I2 0%), but such a difference was not statistically significant for superficial SWI. When only randomized and alternating allocated studies were included, NPWT was associated with a significantly lower risk of any SWI (3.3% vs. 16.5%, RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.08-0.62, I2 0%), superficial SWI (2.6% vs. 12.4%, RR 0.21, 95% CI 0.06-0.69, I2 0%), and deep SWI (1.2% vs. 4.8%, RR 0.17, 95% CI 0.03-0.95, I2 0%). This pooled analysis showed that NPWT may prevent postoperative SWI after adult cardiac surgery. NPWT is expected to be particularly useful in patients at risk for surgical site infection and may significantly reduce the burden of resources needed to treat such a complication. However, the methodology of the available studies was judged as poor for most of them. Further studies are needed to obtain conclusive results on the potential benefits of this preventative strategy.