Minimally-invasive approach via percutaneous femoral cannulation for the resection of intra-cardiac masses: a single center experience in the Middle-East.

BACKGROUND: Intra-cardiac masses are rare and challenging lesions with an overall incidence ranging of 0.02-0.2%. Minimally invasive approaches have been recently introduced for surgical resection of these lesions. Here, we evaluated our early experience using minimally invasive techniques in addressing intra-cardiac lesions. METHODOLOGY: This is a retrospective descriptive study conducted between April 2018 to December 2020. All patients were diagnosed with cardiac tumors and treated via a right mini-thoracotomy with cardiopulmonary bypass through femoral cannulation at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah. RESULTS: Myxoma was the most common pathology representing 46% of cases followed by thrombus (27%), leiomyoma (9%), lipoma (9%) and angiosarcoma (9%). All tumors were resected with negative margins. One patient was converted to open sternotomy. Tumor locations were in the right atrium, left atrium, and left ventricle in 5, 3, and 3 patients, respectively. The median ICU stay was 1.33 days. The median length of hospitalization was 5.7 days. There was no 30-days hospital mortality recorded in this cohort. CONCLUSION: Our early experience shows that minimally invasive resection can be performed safely and effectively for intra-cardiac masses. The minimally invasive approach using a mini-thoracotomy with percutaneous femoral cannulation can be an effective alternative in resecting intra-cardiac masses that achieves clear margin resection, quick post-operative recovery, and low rates of recurrence for benign lesions.

Knowledge and Perception of Cardiac Surgery Among Medical Students in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia.

Introduction Medical undergraduates' educational programs and clinical experiences are important factors in determining their preferred future career path. Unfortunately, the cardiac surgery specialty is experiencing a decline in medical graduates due to many influencing factors as a lack of involvement with the cardiac surgery specialty and a lack of training centers. A detailed evaluation of the student's knowledge and perceptions about cardiac surgery is required to assess the career options in a specialty like cardiac surgery. This study aims to evaluate medical students' knowledge and perceptions of the cardiac surgical specialty. Methodology This is a cross-sectional study that was approved by the institutional research board of Umm Al-Qura University. Adapting a previously published questionnaire data to fit our scope and aims. Necessary adjustments were made adhering to the cardiac surgery experts' instructions. Data was collected through an electronic survey by Google Forms and distributed through social media apps.  Results A total of 637 students participated in the study. The majority (75.2%) admitted to having little knowledge of the specialty of cardiac surgery, and 62.8% reported no interest in it. In addition, 88.9% had never done a cardiac surgery rotation before. One of the top concerns of becoming a cardiac surgeon (45.2%) was the amount of time spent studying and working. Conclusion The findings of our study highlight the value of using innovative and targeted learning methods for medical students to enhance their knowledge and pique their interest in cardiac surgery since it was evident that there was a misperception regarding the scope of cases dealt with by cardiac surgery as opposed to other surgical subspecialists.