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A 78-year-old woman who had previously undergone prosthetic graft replacement of the total aortic arch was admitted to repair a chronic expanding type IIIb dissecting aneurysm. Firstly the patient's abdominal aorta was replaced with a prosthetic graft without any complications, then the thoracicdescending aorta was repaired five months later. Surgery for the thoracic descending aorta was performed with distal perfusion, cerebrospinal fluid drainage, somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) monitoring and reimplantation of three pairs of intercostal arteries. During surgery, SEP showed no significant changes, and the patient awoke without paraplegia three hours after the surgery. However, she developed bilateral complete paraplegia eight hours after the surgery. Reexploration demonstrated thrombo-occlusion of the sidearm graft for reimplantation of the Th10 intercostal artery. After thrombectomy of the sidearm graft, there was gradual neurological recovery and the patient was ambulatory when discharged. Quick treatment to restore the spinal cord blood supply promoted recovery from paraplegia.

A 52-year-old man hospitalized for hoarseness and chest pain was found in chest computed tomography to have an impending aortic arch aneurysm rupture. Laboratory studies showed the presence of severe inflammation. Based on a clinical diagnosis of infected aortic arch aneurysm, we conducted total arch replacement. Salmonella was identified in the aneurismal wall and antibiotics were administered long-term. The postoperative course was uneventful. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 48. He has remained afebrile and asymptomatic in the 10 months since surgery but continues to take 300 mg/d of oral levofloxacin.

Objective: Acute myocardial infarction due to left main coronary artery occlusion remains catastrophic and mostly fatal due to severe cardiogenic shock and arrhythmia., Methods: We studied 13 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting for acute myocardial infarction due to left main coronary artery occlusion to clarify the optimal management of these difficult patients., Results: In-hospital mortality was 46.2% (6/13). Revascularization was achieved by catheter intervention followed by bypass surgery in 7, and bypass surgery alone in 6. Two bypass surgery patients without catheter intervention had collateral flow to the left coronary artery, with the right coronary artery dominant. The time from onset to recanalization in the survival group was significantly shorter than in the early death group., Conclusions: Emergency intervention to preserve left ventricular function or right coronary artery dominant and collateral blood flow to left coronary arteries is important for improving the prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction due to left main coronary artery occlusion. If residual left main coronary artery stenosis is significant or other proximal coronary stenosis exists after catheter intervention, early coronary bypass surgery may improve long-term survival.

A 68-year-old woman complained of chest discomfort after a traffic accident in which she driving hit a child. At about twenty-five minutes later, she went into sudden cardiogenic shock due to acute myocardial infarction caused by non-occlusive intracoronary thrombosis without significant organic coronary stenosis and without any sign of extraluminal contrast pooling on coronary angiography. She was transported to our emergency room by ambulance because of cardiac tamponade caused by a left ventricular free wall rupture following the acute myocardial infarction. On arrival, she was near cardio-pulmonary arrest on intraaortic balloon pumping. We performed emergency open cardiac massage and pericardiotomy. The hairline perforation responsible for the blowout-type left ventricular free wall rupture was successfully closed with Teflon-reinforced sutures. In conclusion, it was strongly suspected that the present case of left ventricular free wall rupture was caused by acute myocardial infarction due to intracoronary thrombosis following coronary spasm without significant organic coronary stenosis or rupture of atheromatous plaque.

Fifty-seven patients of type A aortic dissection were underwent operations from Jan. 1985 to Nov. 1994. The number of patients who underwent graft replacement of the aorta and received aortogram after the operation was twenty-nine. To investigate factors affecting the occurrence of anastomotic leakage after graft replacement of the aorta, the aortograms of the 29 patients were examined retrospectively. The aortograms revealed leakage at the distal anastomotic site on 11 of the 29 patients. Eight factors: the kind of graft, Marfan's syndrome, the use of felt at the anastomotic site, the clamping method, distal anastomotic site, acute or chronic, the state of the aortic wall at the anastomotic site and the blood pressure control after operation, were examined relating to the occurrence of anastomotic leakage. The results showed 3 factors; acute or chronic, the state of the aortic wall and the blood pressure control, affected the occurrence of anastomotic leakage. In short, the anastomotic leakage easily occurred in patients who underwent in the acute stage and whose blood pressure was uncontrolled after the operation. Therefore, strict control of the blood pressure after the operation is the most effective for preventing anastomotic leakage.

Aortic regurgitation due to traumatic rupture of the aortic valve with dove-coo murmur is rare. A 71-year-old man was admitted for cardiac failure due to aortic regurgitation with dove-coo murmur, 4 years after the traffic accident. The aortic valve replacement was performed and his postoperative course was good. The aortic valve was tricuspid valve with the tear in the left side of right coronary cusp, and the size of the tear was 7 mm. The aortic valve was not recognized the findings of inflammatory or rheumatic change in the pathological study.

Papillary fibroelastoma is one of the most common benign primary cardiac tumor after myxoma. However, it is rare to originate from Eustachian valve. A 44-year-old woman was pointed out the right atrial tumor during admission for vasospastic angina. On two-dimensional echocardiogram, the tumor was found in the right atrium, and easily moved to the right ventricle. At operation, the tumor originated from Eustachian valve, and was resected together with the valve by means of extracorporeal circulation. The size of tumor was 57 mm in length, and the histological diagnosis was papillary fibroleastoma. The post-operative course was uneventful.

A 55-year-old male was diagnosed as acute type A aortic dissection caused by retrograde propagation from a tear in the descending aorta. A replacement of the descending aorta was performed with a prosthetic graft (VASCUTEK). Sixteen days after the operation, the patient required an emergency operation due to a rupture in the ascending aorta. Transesophageal echo and contrast enhanced CT indicated the point of entry to be at the proximal anastomotic portion of the prosthetic graft and the prosthetic graft (30 mm in diameter) to be dilated to 45 mm. Intimal tear at anastomotic portion owing to graft dilation was suspected as the main factor causing rupture of the ascending aorta.