Noteworthy Literature in 2018 for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and Intensivists.

In this article, we present the annual review of the literature relevant for the practice of cardiovascular critical care.

The clinical anatomy of the inferior vena cava: a review of common congenital anomalies and considerations for clinicians.

Anomalies in the course and drainage of the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) may complicate normal functioning, correct diagnosis, and therapeutic interventions within the abdomen. Development of the IVC occurs during the 4th to 8th week of gestation, and due to its developmental complexity, there are many opportunities for malformations to occur. Although most IVC anomalies are clinically silent and are usually discovered incidentally on abdominal imaging, aberrations may be responsible for formation of thrombosis, back pain, and anomalous circulation of blood to the heart. In this review, we will discuss the most common variations and abnormalities of the IVC, which include the posterior cardinal veins, the subcardinal veins, the supracardinal veins, persistent left IVC, IVC duplication, situs inversus, left retroaortic renal vein, left circumaortic renal collar, scimitar syndrome, and IVC agenesis. For each abnormality outlined above, we aim to discuss relevant embryology and potential clinical significance with regards to presentation, diagnosis, and treatment as is important for radiologists, surgeons, and clinicians in current clinical practice.

Wormian bones: a review.

Wormian bones are abnormal ossicles that develop from extra ossification centers within the cranium. They are most frequently located in the lambdoid suture or the coronal suture, and have been seen in the fontanelles, particularly the posterior fontanelle. It is unclear at this time exactly how or why they are formed, although genetic as well as environmental factors have been proposed. Their initial formation is thought to be caused by a degree of dural strain and increased sutural width. These conditions can result from mechanically induced stress due to intentional deformation like that practiced in ancient cultures, premature sutural closure, or from reduced skull ossification as seen in metabolic bone diseases. The cause of the malformation can have an influence on the number and location of Wormian bones. Clinically, Wormian bones are used as markers in the diagnoses of many autosomal dominant genetic disorders, namely, craniosynostosis and osteogenesis imperfecta.

The history of mastectomy.

The mastectomy that is performed today is a procedure born from hundreds of years of discoveries, inventions, and amendments to existing surgical techniques. The reasons for performing this extreme surgery have changed as well, ranging from unilateral breast removal to allow greater upper limb functionality to bilateral removal of the breasts or breast tissue in individuals predisposed to breast cancer or in individuals who have already been diagnosed. The additions of surgical tools and anesthetics to the field of medicine further transformed the surgical field in general and had a large impact on the mastectomy. William Halsted's radical mastectomy served as the basis of most future breast removal techniques, and it the method recognized today as the "radical mastectomy." Most radical surgeries are currently used for prophylaxis, whereas less invasive lumpectomies have eclipsed breast removal surgeries as of the latter half of the 20th century.