Self-Practice Program for Beating-Heart Minimally Invasive Coronary Anastomosis Using a Homemade Low-Fidelity Simulator: A Proof of Concept.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effectiveness of a consistent and structured self-practice coronary anastomosis program using a homemade low-fidelity beating-heart simulator. METHODS: An intermediary trainee was subjected to an 8-week structured self-practice program. The program was divided into 2 parts of nonbeating and beating practices with a minimum number of timed anastomoses. Each part was followed by an assessment using an objective skills assessment tool score. The beating-heart simulator was built using motorized toy blocks connected wirelessly to a smartphone application. This was coded to enable rate selection. A junior consultant was compared to the subject at the end of the program. Both were tasked to perform 1 coronary anastomosis for both off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) and minimally invasive CAB (MICS) setup. The primary outcomes were anastomotic time and score compared with the junior consultant. Secondary outcomes were progression of anastomotic time and score throughout the program. RESULTS: Overall performance of the studied subject approached the performance of the junior consultant in terms of time (OPCAB, 489 vs 605 s; MICS, 712 vs 652 s) and scores (OPCAB, 21 vs 20.7; MICS, 19 vs 20.6). There were inverse correlations between anastomosis time and number of practices for both nonbeating and beating anastomoses. Overall improvement was observed in terms of assessment scoring by 26.6%. CONCLUSIONS: A structured self-practice program using an affordable and accessible simulator was able to help trainees overcome the MICS anastomosis learning curve quicker when introduced earlier. This may encourage earlier adoption of MICS among surgeons.

Surgical outcomes of absent pulmonary valve syndrome: An institutional experience.

BACKGROUND: Absent pulmonary valve syndrome (APVS) is a variant of tetralogy of Fallot characterized by aneurysmal pulmonary arteries, which compresses the tracheobronchial tree, leading to respiratory symptoms. We report the mid-term outcomes of surgical correction of patients with APVS. SUBJECT AND METHODS: A total of 27 patients underwent surgery between 2001 and 2015, and they were followed up for a mean period of 6.4 ± 4.1 years. Out of the 27 patients, 14 (51.9%) were infants. The median age at repair was 9.8 months. Preoperative intubation was required in six patients (22.2%), and 11 patients (40.7%) had symptoms of respiratory distress. The pulmonary valve was replaced with a valved conduit in 15 patients (55.6%), monocusp valve in 6 patients (22.2%), and a transannular patch in 6 patients (22.2%). Reduction pulmonary arterioplasty was done in all patients. RESULTS: The overall 10-year survival was 82.1%. There was 81.1% overall freedom from re-intervention at 10 years. No statistically significant difference was found in 10-year survival (P = 0.464) and reoperation rates (P = 0.129) between valved conduit, monocusp, or transannular patch techniques. Older children had statistically significantly longer survival (P = 0.039) and freedom from re-intervention (P = 0.016) compared to infants. Patients without respiratory complications had 100% 10-year survival and 93.3% freedom from reoperation at 10 years compared to 55.6% and 60.1%, respectively, for patients with respiratory complications. CONCLUSION: There has been improvement in surgical results for APVS over the years. However, it still remains a challenge to manage infants and patients with persistent respiratory problems.