Coronary fistulas: a case series

Coronary artery fistula is an uncommon finding during angiographic exams. We report a case series of five patients with congenital coronary fistulas. The first patient was 56 years old and had a coronary fistula associated with a partial atrio ventricular defect, the second patient was 54 years old and had two fistulas originating from the right coronary artery with a severe atherosclerotic coronary disease, the third patient was 57 years old with a fistula originating from the circumflex artery associated with a rheumatic mitral stenosis, the fourth patient was 50 years old and had a fistulous communication between the right coronary artery and the right bronchial artery, and the last patient was 12 years old who had bilateral coronary fistulas draining into the right ventricle with an aneurismal dilatation of the coronary arteries. Angiographic aspects of coronary fistulas are various; management is controversial and depends on the presence of symptoms

Coronary insufficiency in children: Review of literature and report of a rare case with unknown aetiology

Myocardial ischemia due to coronary artery disease is a rare condition in children. The reported causes of this condition include vasculitis; commonest being Kawasaki' disease, premature atherosclerosis due to familial dyslipidemias, congenital coronary artery anomalies and post-operative complications of procedures requiring coronary artery re-implantation in children, e.g. arterial switch procedure and Ross procedure. Allograft arteriopathy after heart transplantation is a more recent addition to this list [Mavroudis et al., 1996]. Surgical procedures required for the treatment of coronary artery disease in children include, but are not limited to coronary artery re-implantation, re-routing, augmentation of the osteum, and coronary artery bypass grafting [CABG]. We present our experience of a rare case of triple vessel coronary artery disease of unknown aetiology in a child, treated with coronary artery bypass grafting procedure

Padronização da técnica para cirurgia cardíaca videoassistida: experiência inicial / Standardization of video-assisted cardiac surgery technique: initial experience

INTRODUÇÃO: Cirurgias cardíacas videoassistidas minimamente invasivas têm sido realizadas em grandes centros mundiais, incluindo procedimentos valvares, coronários e congênitos. OBJETIVO: Apresentar nossa primeira casuística com videocirurgia cardíaca, por meio da experiência adquirida com cirurgia geral e torácica. MÉTODOS: Sempre que houve possibilidade de se realizar uma cirurgia cardíaca por acesso minimamente invasivo, esta foi a abordagem inicialmente utilizada. A toracoscopia esquerda foi utilizada em quatro casos: (1) ligadura de fistula coronário-pulmonar sintomática, (2) implante de eletrodo epicárdico em ventrículo esquerdo para ressincronização ventricular, (3) retirada de lipoma gigante de pericárdio com pedículo em átrio esquerdo e (4) ressecção de hemangio-lipoma de mediastino. Toracoscopia direita com bypass cardiopulmonar via artéria e veia femorais e parada cardíaca em fibrilação ventricular com hipotermia moderada, foram realizados nos seguintes casos: (5) paciente com estenose mitral pós-plastia, com anel de Carpentier 12 anos antes. Foi realizada comissurotomia anterior e posterior com sucesso, sem toracotomia, (6) paciente com miocardiopatia dilatada idiopática, fibrilação atrial de alta resposta e insuficiência mitral importante, realizada plastia mitral com anel de Gregori e ablação de veias pulmonares com cateter de radiofreqüência (MAZE modificada). Neste caso, uma minitoracotomia ântero-lateral direita de 6 cm foi utilizada. RESULTADOS: Nenhum óbito ocorreu nesta série e o resultado cirúrgico em todos os casos foi altamente satisfatório, sendo que todos os pacientes receberam alta hospitalar com média de 5,5 + 5 dias após a intervenção. CONCLUSÃO: Nossa experiência inicial neste campo demonstra a eficácia e exeqüibilidade de introdução deste tipo de técnica em nosso meio.

INTRODUCTION: Minimally invasive cardiac surgery has been performed in major worldwide centers, including procedure such as valves, coronary and congenital surgery. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate our first works with noninvasive cardiac surgery by mean of the experience gained with general and thoracic surgery. METHODS: Whenever possible to carry out a minimally invasive cardiac surgery, this was the approach of choice. The left thoracoscopy was used in four cases: (1) symptomatic coronary-pulmonary fistula ligation; (2) implant of an epicardial electrode into the left ventricle for resynchronization; (3) excision of pericardial giant lipoma in the left atrium, and (4) resection of hemangiolipoma in the mediastinum. Right thoracoscopy with extracorporeal circulation through cardiopulmonary bypass via femoral vein and artery and cardiac arrest in ventricular fibrillation with moderate hypothermia were carried out in the following cases: (5) patient with mitral stenosis after surgical repair with Carpentier ring 12 years before. An anterior and posterior commissurotomy without thoracotomy was successfully made; (6) patient with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, high-response atrial fibrillation, and severe mitral insufficiency, underwent mitral repair surgery with Gregori's ring and ablation of the pulmonary veins with radio-frequency catheter. (MAZZE modified). RESULT: No death occurred in this series and the surgical result in all cases was highly satisfactory. All patients were discharged from hospital with a mean time of 5.5 ± 5 days after intervention. CONCLUSION: Our initial experience in this field proves the effectiveness and the viability in introducing this type of technique in Brazil.

Coronary artery fistula with double outlet right ventricle: a case report

The majority of coronary artery fistulas [CAFs] are congenital. The anomaly accounts for 0.4% of congenital heart defects and approximately 50% of pediatric coronary vasculature anomalies. Twenty percent of people with congenital CAFs have other concomitant cardiac anomalies, most frequently aortic and pulmonary atresia and patent ductus arteriosus. It is worthy of note that CAF with the tetralogy of Fallot has also been reported. Here we describe a patient with a double outlet right ventricle in association with a coronary artery fistula