Retrieval Of Balloon From Right Coronary Artery Surgically.

BACKGROUND: Angioplasty balloon entrapment remains an infrequent but dangerous obstacle that requires forbearance and pre-built management strategies in order to avoid morbidity or worse, mortality. Here, we discuss an un-expected hurdle of an undeflated stuck balloon with fractured shaft during angioplasty of proximal right coronary artery (RCA) in a 60-year-old male which was attempted percutaneously and redeemed surgically but massive infarction to RCA territory was inevitable.

Common Predisposing Factors in Mortality of Patients After Undergoing Mitral Valve Surgery at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi.

Background Isolated mitral valve replacement is a routinely performed procedure at our institute due to higher prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in every age category. Hardly any researches are available that dictate the predictors of surgical mortality in isolated mitral valve procedure. The aim of this study was to identify the most prevailing pre-operative factors in patients who had mortality after isolated mitral valve surgery. Methodology A retrospective observational study of two years was performed from January 2018 to December 2019 at the Adult Cardiac Surgery Department of a tertiary care cardiac center in Karachi, Pakistan. Patients of either gender of age ranging from 16 to 65 years who had mortality within 30 days after isolated mitral valve surgery were included in the study. Variables assessed from records were anemia, New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification, prolonged symptoms, poor nutritional status, degree of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, valve pathology, pulmonary artery hypertension, and cardiac arrhythmias. Results We report our isolated mitral valve mortality rate of 5.5% (38/697) in the two-year duration. The most commonly encountered pre-operative factors were severe mitral regurgitation and pulmonary artery hypertension, which were observed in 32 (84.2%) and 23 (60.5%) patients, respectively. Other factors that were common to these patients were higher NYHA functional class (class III in 23 [60.5%] and class IV in 9 [23.7%]), prolonged duration of symptoms (20 [52.6%]), and right ventricular dysfunction (moderate in 21 [55.3%] and severe in 7 [18.4%]). Conclusions The outcome of our study suggests that severe mitral regurgitation, pulmonary artery hypertension, high NYHA functional class, LV dysfunction, and prolonged symptoms were the common predisposing factor in patients with peri-operative mortality after isolated MVR.

Initial Experience of Minimally Invasive Concomitant Aortic and Mitral Valve Replacement/Repair at a Tertiary Care Cardiac Centre of a Developing Country.

Introduction Minimally invasive double valve replacement (DVR) surgery through a small transverse anterior thoracotomy is an alternate technique to sternotomy for concomitant aortic and mitral valve (AVR, MVR) surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in-hospital and early outcomes of direct vision minimal invasive double valve surgery (DVMI-DVR) at a tertiary care cardiac center of a developing country. Methods This study was conducted at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Karachi, Pakistan from January 2018 to September 2018. Nineteen consecutive patients undergoing DVMI-DVR for aortic and mitral disease without any prior cardiac surgery were included in this study. For all procedures, access was obtained through small transverse anterior thoracotomy incision with wedge resection (Chaudhry's Wedge) of sternum opposite to the third and fourth costosternal joints. Patients were observed during their hospital stay and the following variables were observed the length of hospital stay (LOHS), ventilator support, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, pain score, and mortality. The pain score was assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS). Results The male/female ratio was 11:8 with a mean age of 35 ± 12 years with mean EuroSCORE of 6.6 ± 3.5%. The mean total bypass time was 129.8 ± 23.83 min (range: 98-181 minutes). The mean mechanical ventilation time was 3.16 ± 1.12 hours (range: 2-6 hours). The mean intensive care unit (ICU) stay was 41.84 ± 8.36 hours. The mean post-operative LOHS was 5.63 ± 1.12 days (range: 4-8 days). We had zero frequency of wound infection and surgical mortality. The mean pain score was 4.32 (on a predefined pain scale of one to nine with a high value indicating severe pain). Conclusion Minimally invasive DVR surgery is a safe and reproducible technique with comparable outcomes such as postoperative pain score (4.32 ± 2.05), ventilation time (3.16 ± 1.12 hours), ICU stay (41.84 ± 8.36 hours), and hospital stay (5.63 ± 1.12 days). In terms of mortality, operative times, ICU stay, and hospital stay, the minimally invasive DVR is at least comparable to those achieved with median sternotomy. Further prospective randomized studies are needed to validate our findings.