Low-Risk Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement in the Era of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

Open surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) is a viable alternative to transcatheter implantation in low-risk patients. In this light, we evaluated the safety and effectiveness of SAVR performed through conventional and less invasive surgical approaches in a high-volume center. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 395 consecutive patients who underwent open SAVR from January 2019 through December 2019 in our center. We evaluated and compared the operative results and postoperative major adverse outcomes of 3 surgical approaches: full median sternotomy (n=267), upper ministernotomy (ministernotomy) (n=106), and right anterior thoracotomy (minithoracotomy) (n=22). Overall, the 30-day all-cause mortality rate was 0.8% (3 patients). Stroke occurred in 8 patients (2%), disabling stroke in 4 patients (1%), myocardial infarction in 1 (0.2%), and surgical site infection in 13 (3.2%). There was no difference in 30-day mortality rate or incidence of postoperative major adverse events among the 3 surgical groups. Stroke and surgical site infection occurred more frequently, but not significantly so, in the full-sternotomy group. The mean hospital stay was longer after full sternotomy (9.1 ± 5.5 d) than after ministernotomy (7.5 ± 2.9 d) or minithoracotomy (7.4 ± 1.9 d) (P=0.012). Our findings suggest that open SAVR performed in a high-volume center is associated with a low early mortality rate and that less invasive approaches result in faster postoperative recovery and shorter hospital stays.

On-line risk prediction models for acute type A aortic dissection surgery: validation of the German Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection Type A score and the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation II.

OBJECTIVES: The German Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection Type A (GERAADA) on-line score calculator to predict 30-day mortality in patients undergoing surgery for acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) was recently launched. Using the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation II (EuroSCORE II), it is also possible to predict operative mortality for the same type of surgery. The goal of our study was to validate the prediction accuracy of these 2 on-line risk prediction models. METHODS: Prospectively collected data for EuroSCORE II risk factors as well as all data for GERAADA scoring were extracted from an institutional database for 147 patients who underwent surgery for ATAAD between April 2018 and April 2021. The discriminative power was assessed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The calibration of the models was tested by the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics and by using the observed-to-expected (O/E) mortality ratio with the 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: The observed operative mortality was 14.3%. The mean predicted mortality rates for the GERAADA score and the EuroSCORE II were 15.6% and 10.6%, respectively. The EuroSCORE II discriminative power (area under the curve = 0.799) significantly outperformed the discriminatory power of the GERAADA score (area under the curve = 0.550). The Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics confirmed good calibration for both models (P-values of 0.49 and 0.29 for the GERAADA score and the EuroSCORE II, respectively). The O/E mortality ratio certified good calibration for both scores [GERAADA score (O/E ratio of 0.93, 95% confidence interval: 0.53-1.33); EuroSCORE II (O/E ratio of 1.35, 95% confidence interval: 0.77-1.93)]. CONCLUSIONS: The EuroSCORE II has better discriminative power for predicting operative mortality in ATAAD surgery than the GERAADA score. Both scores confirmed good calibration ability.

Unusual Presentation of Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Elderly Patient.

We presented a case of a 56-year-old man with giant pulmonary artery aneurysm caused by a misdiagnosed patent ductus arteriosus, severe multivalvular disease and active aortic valve endocarditis successfully treated by surgery. The correct diagnosis was missed despite preoperative diagnostics because the small patent ductus arteriosus was located at the distal part of common pulmonary trunk and a huge regurgitant signal overlapped its Doppler signal. Thorough evaluation of every patient, regardless of age, is necessary to recognize and treat this congenital anomaly.

Unusual presentation of patent ductus arteriosus in elderly patient

Abstract We presented a case of a 56-year-old man with giant pulmonary artery aneurysm caused by a misdiagnosed patent ductus arteriosus, severe multivalvular disease and active aortic valve endocarditis successfully treated by surgery. The correct diagnosis was missed despite preoperative diagnostics because the small patent ductus arteriosus was located at the distal part of common pulmonary trunk and a huge regurgitant signal overlapped its Doppler signal. Thorough evaluation of every patient, regardless of age, is necessary to recognize and treat this congenital anomaly.

Challenging surgery of giant right coronary aneurysm associated with coronary sinus fistula.

Coronary artery fistula is a rare congenital or acquired anomaly. It involves an abnormal connection between the coronary artery and the cardiac chambers or the large thoracic vessels. In some cases, the feeding coronary artery can become extremely dilated. The treatment includes a transcatheter or a surgical intervention depending on the complexity of the anomaly. We present the surgical treatment of the coronary artery to coronary sinus fistula, which includes the complete exclusion of the giant right coronary artery and followed by triple bypass surgery.

Mid-term patency of the inverted left internal thoracic artery conduit.

In order to expand the revascularization of the left anterior descending coronary artery, we have applied the inverted left internal thoracic artery (left internal thoracic artery [LITA] transected near its origin, thus supplied by retrograde flow from superior epigastric and musculophrenic arteries) in carefully selected cases (four patients). The 64-slice multidetector row computed tomographic scans performed postoperatively (range, 6 to 40 days), as well as the scans performed in the follow-up period (range, 18 to 35 months) showed preserved inverted LITA conduits with thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) 3 flow in all patients.