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A 70-year-old patient who survived about 40 years after left pneumonectomy for tuberculosis visited emergency hospital, because of dyspnea. She received suitable medical therapy for atirial fibrillation and severe mitral regurgitation and hesitated heart surgery because of anxiety for surgical risk. The computed-tomography showed mediastinal shift to left and right lung compensatory expansion. Respiratory function test after treatment of heart failure showed only mild restrictive disorder. And the blood-gas examination in room air was 101 mmHg of Pao2 and 37 mmHg of Paco2. The mitral valve replacement was performed via median sternotomy and using normal cardiopulmonary bypass. And she fully recoverd without any respiratory complications. Mediastinal shift did not obstract the surgical view and establishment of cardiopulmonary bypass in this case. It seemed that the key of surgical successs is the preserved function of healthy residual lung.

A 58-year-old female presented to our hospital with recurrence of chest pain. She had undergone coronary intervention using biolimus-eluting-stent for total occlusion of the left anterior descending artery(LAD) 3 years before. Since then in-stent restenosis had repeated 4 times in 3 years. In the interim, another everolimus-eluting-stent had been placed on the same lesion. The contact metal allergic patch test revealed the existence of allergic response to nickel and cobalt which were the structural components of these stents. She underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting, and these stents were removed. The invasions of macrophages and eosinophils around the stent-s were pathologically proven. One year after surgery she is doing well without angina or allergic symptom. These observations suggested the allergic reaction of the coronary artery against the stents.

Objectives: Recently, bipolar radiofrequency (RF) ablation has been introduced as a potential option to replace many of the Cox-maze incisions. We compared the surgical outcomes of maze procedures in patients who had undergone cryoablation and RF ablation and mitral valve surgery., Methods: From January 2004 to August 2009, a total of 40 patients underwent the maze procedure and concomitant mitral operation as a 1st operation. Of these, the cryoablation maze procedure (n = 20) and RF ablation procedure (n = 20) were performed in the patients with similar background, although more patients in the RF group had undergone mitral valve repair (n = 15) compared to the cryoablation group (n = 8) [p = 0.025]., Results: The peri-operative data, such as operative duration, cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic cross-clamp time, postoperative ventilation time, and the duration of intensive care unit (ICU) stay did not show any significant difference between cryoablation group and RF group. Both ablation procedures were similarly effective in restoring sinus rhythm at the early post-operative period (cryoablation: 80%, RF: 70%). Nine patients in the cryoablation group and 13 patients in the RF ablation group required anti-arrhythmic medication., Conclusions: The RF ablation technique is simpler and equally effective in controlling atrial fibrillation compared to the cryoablation for the maze procedure of concomitant mitral valve surgery.

Various devices have been invented for proximal anastomosis performed during coronary bypass surgery. Enclose II allows a handling of the needle to be similar to a single cross clamp proximal anastomosis with almost no blood loss. However, when creating the anastomotic hole, it is difficult to determine whether an incision into the aortic wall will extend to the intima, and in some instances there is a risk that the hemostatic membrane may be injured. With Enclose II's hemostatic confirmation tube, the hemostatic membrane is opened and the tube is inserted into the aortic wall. The vent plug of the extension tube is opened, blood fills between the aortic wall and the instrument, and air is removed. An isotonic saline solution is injected and the pressure checked to insure that no air enters. An incision into the aortic wall is then made with a scalpel. When the intima is pierced, isotonic saline solution will gush out. In this way, one can prevent injury to the hemostatic membrane and ensure a correctly pierced anastomotic hole in the intima--even with just 1 punch.