Infarto cerebral isquémico en el postoperatorio inmediato de una transposición de grandes vasos en una niña de 5 meses y medio / Ischemic stroke in the early postoperative period of a transposition of great arteries in a 5 and a half months female infant

La Transposición de los Grandes Vasos con septum íntegro (TGV con SI) es una cardiopatía congénita caracterizada por la existencia de una discordancia aislada ventrículo-arterial con concordancia aurículo-ventricular. Al no existir mezcla entre las circulaciones sistémica y pulmonar a través de una comunicación interventricular se trata de una cardiopatía cianosante severa, ya que no es posible la oxigenación a nivel sistémico. Presentamos el caso de una niña diagnosticada de TGV con SI a los 5 meses y 15 días de edad. Se intervino mediante atriseptostomía de urgencia y posterior cirugía de "recuperación" (banding de la arteria pulmonar y shunt subclavia-pulmonar) previa a la corrección anatómica mediante switch arterial. Falleció a los 8 días del ingreso como consecuencia de un infarto cerebral isquémico (AU)

Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) with intact ventricular septum is a congenital heart disease characterized by ventricle-arterial discordance and atria-ventricle concordance. Cyanosis is common in patients with TGA because there is no mixing between systemic and pulmonary circulations through a ventricular septal defect and systemic oxygenation is not possible. We report the case of a 5 months and 15 days old female infant who was diagnosed with TGA with intact septum. Balloon atrial septostomy and "retraining" of left ventricle by pulmonary artery banding and subclavian-pulmonary artery shunt were necessary to be performed before anatomical correction by arterial switch. Nevertheless, she died 8 days after admission due to an ischemic stroke (AU)

Empyema of the thorax in adults. Etiology, microbiologic findings, and management.

The etiology, microbiologic findings, and management of 82 episodes of empyema treated by our unit over a period of 6 years were analyzed. Average patient age was 54 years. Eighty-two percent had underlying disease such as alcoholism (29 percent), malignancy (23 percent), and diabetes mellitus (20 percent). Sixty (73 percent) had an empyema develop secondary to a bronchopulmonary infection. Other etiologies were as follows: infradiaphragmatic sepsis, five cases; iatrogenic, ten cases; and idiopathic, seven cases. Cultures were positive in 76 cases and negative in the remaining 6 (2 positive Gram stains, 1 positive under bacilloscopy, and 3 were sterile). Anaerobes were isolated from 25 and aerobes from 47 of the positive cultures. A single bacteria was isolated from 43 and multiple organisms (average: 2.63/case) grew on the remaining 33 positive cultures. Length of hospitalization averaged 37 days. Seven patients received antibiotics only, thoracentesis was performed on three, intercostal chest tube drainage was required in 72, and more aggressive surgery was performed on 12 patients (7 with fibrothorax and 5 with pneumonectomy). Streptokinase was instilled into the pleural space of eight patients with good results. Pleural drainage superinfection occurred at a rate of 8.5 percent. Nine patients died; the remaining recovered. Only three deaths came about as a direct result of the empyema.