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The surgical treatment of concomitant cardiac disease and lung cancer represents a challenge. We report the case of a 66-year-old high-risk female patient with severe aortic stenosis as well as severely impaired left ventricular function associated with coronary artery disease involving the left anterior descending artery complicated from a severe functional mitral regurgitation in which an early-stage non-small cell carcinoma was incidentally discovered during workup. Because of the possibility of potential negative impact of cardiopulmonary bypass on the cancer prognosis and the severe impairment of systolic function of the left ventricle that impeded the treatment of lung cancer as the first step of such a complex treatment, we planned to treat all the diseases in a single-stage procedure. Using an automated delivering system composed of a ventricular connector (Correx AVB; Correx, Inc, Waltham, MA USA), we were able to perform an apicoaortic bypass as well as a left anterior descending revascularization using the left internal thoracic artery, both on a beating heart without the aid of cardiopulmonary bypass and a three-segmentectomy of the left upper lobe with the removal of paraaortic nodes. Six months postoperatively, she was asymptomatic with a noticeable increase of systolic function, a mild mitral incompetence, and no appearance of tumor recurrence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case described in the literature in which three major problems involving cardiac valves, coronary arteries, and the lung have been treated in one stage without cardiopulmonary bypass.

Herein we describe the use of an automated suture fastener (Cor-Knot), recently proposed for valvular surgery, in cases of aortic valve bypass with a Correx apical connector. This surgical option aims to control suture tension, avoid muscular tears, and standardize and simplify the implantation technique. We report the first 5 cases operated on using the new suturing technique.