The Extracardiac Fontan Operation in Adult: A case report / 대한흉부외과학회지

The Fontan operation is commonly practiced for the physiologic correction of univentricular heart diseases. However, for the patients who have risk factors against this operation, it is recommended to take the initial palliative operation rather than going to the Fontan operation at once. The proper timing to the Fontan operation after palliation is decided by assessing several factors such as patient's age and other risks of maintaining palliative state, etc. Usually, the Fontan operation is done relatively early after palliation stage. Here, we report a 36 years old-adult-female with univentricular heart disease who underwent the successful Fontan operation at 17 years after unidirectional Glenn procedure.

Pulmonary Artery Intimal Sarcoma with Lung Metastasis / 대한흉부외과학회지

Primary pulmonary artery sarcoma is very rare disease. The diagnosis of pulmonary artery sarcoma is frequently confused with pulmonary embolism because its clinical symptom and radiologic findings are similar with pulmonary embolism. It was often diagnosed at autopsy as it progresses rapidly. So Pulmonary artery sarcoma must be suspected if the origin of thrombus is not known and anticoagulation therapy is not effective. In this case, a 57 years old man who has been diagnosed pulmonary embolism was transferred to our department because of ineffective anticoagulant therapy and its worsening lesion despite of 5 month-therapy. In operative findings, it was pulmonary artery sarcoma that invaded to pericardium. There was angiosarcoma in right pulmonary artery, which metastasized to lung parenchyme. Under cardiopulmonary bypass, we resected main pulmonary artery and right lung. The Gore-tex graft was interposed between main pulmonary artery and left pulmonary artery. He was discharged after chemotherapy.

The Long-term Clinical Result of St. Jude Mechanical Valve Replacement / 대한흉부외과학회지

BACKGROUND: The St. Jude Medical prosthesis is one of the popularly used artificial prosthesis, therefore the National Medical Center reports the long-term clinical results of patients who underwent prosthetic valve replacement with St. Jude medical valve for 18 years. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Between January, 1984 and June, 2002, a series of 163 consecutive patients who had implanted St. Jude prosthesis at the National Medical Center were reviewed. Mean age was 42.9+/-15.1 years and male to female ratio was 69:94. The operative procedure comprised of 87 MVR, 30 AVR, 45 DVR, and 1 TVR. The reoperative procedure comprised of 21 MVR, 2 AVR, and 14 DVR. Follow-up rate was 96.9%, and cumulative follow-up was 823.8 patient-years. RESULT: Early mortality rate was 7.9% (13 patients), late mortality rate was 8.7% (13 patients) and late mortality due to valve related complication was 4.7% (7 patients). Actual survival rate at 10 and 18 years were 91.7+/-2.1% and 91.0+/-1.9%. Linearized incidence was as follows: thromboembolism, 1.09%/ patient-year; anticoagulant related hemorrhage, 0.36%/patient-year; valve thrombosis, 0.24%/patient-year; paravalvular leakage, 0.12%/patient-year; and prosthetic bacterial endocarditis, 0.12%/patient-year. Linearized incidence of over all valve related complication was 1.94%/patient-year. Freedom from valve related complication at 10 and 18 years were 89.1+/-3.3% and 88.4+/-3.9%. Freedom from valve related death at 10 and 18 years were 95.1+/-1.2% and 95.1+/-1.0%. Valve related complication was related the age of patient, especially anticoagulant related hemorrhage was more common in patients over 60 years of age. Valve related complication, death were higher in DVR than AVR or MVR, and valve related death was higher in reoperation. There was no relationship between valve related complication or death and implant valve or size. CONCLUSION: The long-term clinical results of patients implanted with St. Jude Mechanical prosthesis was quite satisfactory with a low incidence of valve related complication and mortality.

Surgical Treatment of Pulmonary Aspergillosis (III) / 대한흉부외과학회지

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary aspergillosis usually results from the colonization of the existing lung lesions by chronic pulmonary diseases, such as tuberculosis. Most cases of pulmonary aspergilloma have been treated surgically for many years because it is a potentially life-threatening disease causing massive hemoptysis. Here we reviewed our results from the last 10 years. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We reviewed 31 cases surgically treated from Aug. 1992 to Jul. 2002. retrospectively. This investigation is designed to illustrate the peak age incidence, sex ratio, chief complaints, preoperative study, anatomic location of operative site, postoperative pathologic finding and postoperative complications. RESULT: The peak age incidence laid in the 3rd and 4th decade of 20 cases (64.5%). The most common complaint was hemoptysis in 27 cases (87.1%). The 31 cases had a history of treatment with anti- tuberculous drugs under impression of pulmonary tuberculosis. The 19 cases (61.3%) showed the so-called "Air- meniscus sign" on the preoperative chest X-ray. In the 31 cases (100%) on the chest computed tomography. as a preoperative diagnostic modality, positivity was shown in 37.9%, 83.3% was shown on the fungus culture of sputum for Aspergillus, serum immunodiffusion test for A. fumigatus, respectively. The anatomical location of aspergilloma was mainly in the upper lobe in 19 cases (61.3%) and the majority of cases were managed by lobectomy. The postoperative pathologic findings showed that 31 cases (100%) were combined with tuberculosis. The postoperative complications include empyema, prolonged air leakage, remained dead space, postoperative bleeding and these numbers of cases is 3 cases (9.7%), 2 cases (6.45%), 2 cases (6.45%), 1 case (3.23%), respectively. one case was died postoperatively due to massive beeding, and asphyxia. CONCLUSION: Compared with the previous study, there is no significant difference in results. Preoperative chest computed tomography and immunodiffusion test were more commonly available and showed high positivity. Operations often became technically difficult because of pleural space obliteration, indurated hilar structures, and poor expansion of the remaining lung, which were more prominent in the patients with complex aspergillosis. In such cases, medical treatments and interventional procedures like bronchial artery embolization are preferred. However, cavernostomy is also recommanded with few additional morbidity because of its relatively less invassiveness. Early surgical intervention is the recommended management for patients with simple aspergilloma considering the low surgical mortality and morbidity in recent days.

Esophageal stent insertion at the esophagogastrostomy site stenosis: Report of 3 cases / 대한흉부외과학회지

Although postanastomosis stenosis of esophageal reconstruction is rare but it is a very unwelcome complication. Previously, the problem was solved by balloon dilatation, reoperation, and feeding jejunostomy. However, balloon dilatation is not effective because of high recurrence rate, reoperation is difficult due to its operative approachableness and also jejunostomy is inconvenient for patients. Therefore, we inserted esophageal stent as a method of relieving postanastomosis stenosis. From Jan, 2001 to Dec, 2001, there were three patients with postanastomosis stenosis, who received esophageal stent insertion, one had case is benign esophageal stenosis, two had esophageal carcinoma. We followed up them over 12 months after inserting the stent, Dysphagia was improved, so we report that the clinical performance was satisfactory

Clinical Study of Pulmonary Resection for Tuberculosis(V) / 대한흉부외과학회지

BACKGROUND: In spite of the establishment of chemotherapy and the gradual decrease in prevalence, pulmonary tuberculosis is still mainly treated with an operation. Through analyzing and examining some cases of surgical treatment, we hope to provide some help in treating of pulmonary tuberculosis in the future. MATERIAL AND METHOD: By comparing four journals previously published in our department with 144 cases of lung surgery during ten years from January of 1991 to December of 2000 performed by the department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery of the National Medical Center, we analyzed and reviewed the most recent trends and the results of the surgical treatment. Annual frequency of the operation, distribution of age, examination of sputum, adaptability and types of techniques, complications, and results of the postoperative follow-up were used as methods. RESULT: It was found that the annual frequency of operations had decreased. The ratio of men to women, 2:1 indicates that there are more incidences in men. Aging of patients could be speculated by the results that the decrease in the incidence rate in the 20s age range and increase rate in the 50s age range. The range of preoperative lesions belonged mostly to far advanced and moderately advanced tuberculosis. By monitoring the period of use in preoperative antituberculosis drugs, cases for more than 3 years remarkably increased from 16.0 % to 55.6 %. The positive reactive rate for preoperative sputum examinations were drastically decreased from 91 % to 27 %. Total pulmonary destruction and partial destruction were the most common cases in terms of adaptability to the operations and there were significant increases in forming empyema accompanied by parenchymal lesions from 4.0 % to 20.1 %. Pneumonectomy and pulmonary lobectomy were the major type of operations. Especially, there were increases in the incident rate of empyema and recurrence of tuberculosis resulted. Post operative follow-up indicates that the rate of complete recovery was more than 70 % and the rate of gradual increase in treating with persistent antituberculosis drug was from 5.8 % to 18.0 %. CONCLUSION: In recent cases, there is an increasing number of patients showing tolerance to chemotherapy. Patients with pleural tuberculosis and severe lesions were typically increased. It is important to accurately analyze those complaints accurately that are mostly difficult to be treated medically. Surgical treatment is strongly recommended Before multiple drug resistance occurs.

Trido Mitral Valve Replacement with Dacron Collar Prosthetic Valve due to Paravalvular Leak / 대한흉부외과학회지

The paravalvular leak after redo mitral prosthetic valve replacement is rare but serious complication when it does happen. This condition should be corrected surgically to increase life span and improve symptoms. But simple closure or patch closure of paravalvular leak are not effective in cases of weak annulus or broad defect. We report 3 cases of trido mitral valve replacement using mechanical valve with its sewing ring expanded by a collar of Dacron sheet. The prosthetic sewing ring is anchored on the weak mitral annulus with multiple interrupted sutures, while the Dacron collar is contineuously sutured to the left atrial wall for blood tight sealing. All of the three cases showed event free postoperative course.

Trido Mitral Valve Replacement with Dacron Collar Prosthetic Valve due to Paravalvular Leak / 대한흉부외과학회지

The paravalvular leak after redo mitral prosthetic valve replacement is rare but serious complication when it does happen. This condition should be corrected surgically to increase life span and improve symptoms. But simple closure or patch closure of paravalvular leak are not effective in cases of weak annulus or broad defect. We report 3 cases of trido mitral valve replacement using mechanical valve with its sewing ring expanded by a collar of Dacron sheet. The prosthetic sewing ring is anchored on the weak mitral annulus with multiple interrupted sutures, while the Dacron collar is contineuously sutured to the left atrial wall for blood tight sealing. All of the three cases showed event free postoperative course.