Postoperative Pain in Thoracic Surgical Patients: An Analysis of Factors Associated With Acute and Chronic Pain.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic surgery is associated with high levels of acute and chronic pain, which is associated with significant morbidity, reduced quality of life, and increased health care expenditure. This study aims to identify patient-care factors associated with higher levels of acute and chronic pain after thoracic surgery. METHODS: The acute pain component of this study retrospectively analysed 53 patients, surgical, anaesthetic, and postoperative factors against an average measure of acute pain during a patient's hospital admission, for 134 individual acute admission episodes. The chronic pain component analysed 58 care factors against a binary chronic pain outcome based on the Neuropathic Pain Scale and the Brief Pain Inventory, for 72 patients, at an average of 7 months postoperatively. RESULTS: Younger age, chronic opioid use, use of talc, and multi-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) compared to uniport VATS, were all associated with higher levels of acute postoperative pain. Seven (7) months postoperatively, the rate of chronic sensation change or numbness was 31%. The rate of troublesome chronic pain was 8%. History of a mental health condition, chronic opioid use, urgent operation, and the use of tramadol postoperatively were independently associated with a higher risk of chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies several factors associated with higher rates of acute and chronic postoperative pain, and defines the rate of chronic pain in a large tertiary thoracic surgery centre. Consideration should be given to modifying those surgical practices which were identified as being associated with higher levels of pain, including multi-port VATS, and the use of talc. It is important that non-modifiable risk factors for pain, including history of mental health condition, opioid use, age, and urgency of operation, are taken into consideration when informing a patient of the risk of pain postoperatively.

Catamenial Pneumothorax, a Commonly Misdiagnosed Thoracic Condition: Multicentre Experience and Audit of a Small Case Series With Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND: Catamenial pneumothorax (CP) is an unusual condition affecting premenopausal women and commonly misdiagnosed as simple pneumothorax. It is characterised by its recurrence between the day before and within 72 hours after the onset of menstruation. It has been associated with thoracic endometriosis but the aetiology is not well understood and there is no unified agreement for its optimal management. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of CP in surgical patients and the results of their treatment. METHODS: Females between the ages of 30 to 50 years with a diagnosis of pneumothorax, admitted for surgery over a 10-year period in four different hospitals were retrospectively reviewed for evidence of CP. An audit of surgical and medical management of the patients with CP and their short to midterm outcomes was performed in addition to a systemic review of the literature on CP. RESULT: A total of 120 premenopausal female patients with a diagnosis of pneumothorax were admitted for Video Assisted Thoracoscopic (VAT) surgery and five women (4.1%) with a mean age of 42.6 years were diagnosed to have CP through surgical and histological findings. The first case was diagnosed 5 years ago and the last three within recent 12 months after the changes in surgical practices of inspecting diaphragmatic surface in suspected cases of CP. Four patients underwent diaphragmatic plication and one patient had a pleural biopsy. All patients underwent talc pleurodesis and hormone therapy in the postoperative period. Short to midterm (mean follow-up period of 25.2 months) results of the patients with CP were encouraging. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible that many of the cohort of premenopausal female patients presenting with recurrent pneumothorax are misdiagnosed as spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) because routine inspection of the diaphragmatic surface is not often performed. A thorough menstrual history and its temporal relation to pneumothorax onset should be assessed on every woman presenting with recurrent pneumothorax and intraoperative exploration of diaphragmatic surface should be performed in the patients with high suspicion of CP as the patients diagnosed with CP have a good outcome with surgery and hormone therapy.

Familial Atrial Myxoma: Three Related Cases at an Australian Tertiary Institution.

Carney complex accounts for up to two-thirds of familial cardiac myxoma. It is a rare autosomal dominant syndrome, which is also characterized by multiple mucocutaneous lesions and endocrine tumors. We report on three first-degree relatives who underwent surgical resection at the same Australian tertiary institution. One patient re-presented with a recurrent tumor at an interval of 6 years. In this context, the role of interval surveillance, family screening, and genetic testing is explored. We recommend interval echocardiographic surveillance for affected individuals and first-degree relatives given the high risk of recurrence and the morbidity and mortality associated with cardiac tumors in any location.

Surgical management of mitral valve infective endocarditis with annular abscess and calcification in the setting of a leaking mycotic infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm: a case report.

We present the case of a previously well seventy-four year old male caucasian grazier who presented with mild back pain and was subsequently found to have a large posterior mitral valve leaflet perivalvular abscess associated with mitral annulus calcification and a mycotic infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) of Staphylococcal origin. He underwent a right axillofemoral bypass with oversewn aorta and a right to left femoral crossover graft, and a subsequent mitral valve repair with decalcification/debridement of the annulus and extensive posterior leaflet reconstruction with pericardium patch. Despite multiple sequelae and an extended intensive care and hospital stay, the patient was discharged home after six months.

Iatrogenic tracheal rupture: bovine pericardial patch repair without flap reinforcement.

We describe a case of an extensive post-intubation membranous tracheal rupture in a 67-year old patient after emergency intubation. This was managed surgically by bovine pericardial patch repair. Other cases of autologous and bovine patch repair of tracheal lacerations exist in the literature, and we believe this is the first report of successful bovine patch repair without accessory autologous tissue reinforcement. This technique may be used in surgically managed cases of membranous tracheal rupture where primary repair is unsuitable, thereby reducing procedural complexity.

Aortic atherosclerosis and postoperative neurological dysfunction in elderly coronary surgical patients.

BACKGROUND: Arteriosclerosis of the ascending aorta is an important risk factor for cerebral embolism. However, the association between arteriosclerosis of the ascending aorta and neurologic dysfunction after coronary artery surgery has not been evaluated prospectively. METHODS: We examined whether varying degrees of arteriosclerosis in the ascending aorta, assessed by epiaortic ultrasonography, increased the incidence of neuropsychologic dysfunction and stroke in 463 elderly patients (> or = 60 years old) after coronary artery surgery. RESULTS: Patients with severe arteriosclerosis (n = 76) had higher rates of postoperative neuropsychologic dysfunction (26%) and intraoperative stroke (10.5%); the moderately atherosclerotic patients (n = 57) had rates of 7% and 1.8%, respectively; whereas control patients (almost normal or mild arteriosclerosis, n = 330) had rates of 8% and 1.2%, respectively (all p < 0.001). Univariate analysis indicated that multiple small infarctions or broad infarctions, cerebral arterial stenosis, circulatory arrest, maximal thickness of intima around the site of aortic manipulation, and deformities due to clamp or cannulation were associated significantly with intraoperative strokes in patients with severe arteriosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS: Severe arteriosclerosis of the ascending aorta significantly increased the risk of postoperative neuropsychologic dysfunction and stroke after coronary artery bypass grafting. If a thick plaque is noted near the manipulation site, a nontouch method of the ascending aorta should be applied to reduce the incidence of neurologic dysfunction.

Long-term results of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with renal insufficiency.

BACKGROUND: There are few published studies on coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with renal insufficiency who are not on maintenance dialysis. No details of long-term results have been published. METHODS: This retrospective study focuses on 117 consecutive coronary artery bypass grafting patients with renal insufficiency, but who did not require dialysis (group B: preoperative serum creatinine level > or = 1.5 mg/dL). For comparison purposes, patients on maintenance dialysis (group C: 84 patients) and patients with normal renal function (group A: 794 patients; preoperative serum creatinine level < 1.0 mg/dL) were selected. RESULTS: Hospital mortality was 11% (13 of 117) in group B, 5.9% (5 of 84) in group C, and 1.6% (13 of 794) in group A, and between groups A and B, p < 0.0001, and between groups B and C, p = 0.24. Actuarial survival rates at 10 years, including all deaths, were 87%, 32%, and 29% in groups A, B and C, respectively, and between groups A and B, p < 0.009 and between groups B and C, p = 0.63. In 23 patients in group B, the bilateral internal thoracic artery was used. No cardiac deaths were observed in these patients during the mean follow-up time of 42 months (range, 1 to 128 months). Cox model analysis revealed nonuse of arterial grafting (p = 0.03; Hazards ratio 1.7) to be a statistically significant factor, and renal insufficiency (p < 0.0001; Hazards ratio 3.3) and maintenance dialysis (p < 0.0001; Hazards ratio 5.6) to be major independent risk factors for actuarial survival. CONCLUSIONS: Renal insufficiency was shown to be an independent risk factor for poor prognosis after coronary artery bypass grafting. However, aggressive use of arterial grafts, especially the internal thoracic artery, is recommended to improve late outcomes.

Bilateral pedicled internal thoracic artery grafting.

BACKGROUND: Pedicled bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting (BITA) has been discouraged in historical high-risk groups such as diabetes mellitus (DM), renal failure, old age, and obesity because of reported high incidence of mediastinitis. However, considering the fact that there are abundant short and long-term results including angiography study about the conventional pedicled grafts, it might be worthwhile reassessing the results of pedicled BITA grafting with modern techniques by a disciplined surgical team before abandoning the method. METHODS: Between September 1989 and September 1999, 1371 patients underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in Kumamoto central hospital. Of these patients, 558 patients who had bilateral ITA strategy (mean age 63.0+/-9.2 years, 13-79) were studied. The method of harvest of ITAs is consistently the use of conventional pedicled grafts. The use of bone wax and unnecessary electrocautery injury to the periostium or cartilage were avoided as much as possible. The only change in the surgical technique in the study period is the application of the pinpoint hemostasis for the presternal tissues from August 1997 (late period). RESULTS: In late period, there were significantly more patients with sternal sepsis risk factors such as diabetes mellitus (early: late; 19.3% vs. 34.8%, P<0.00003), and renal failure (0.3 vs. 9.7%, P<0.0001) as well as patients who had gastroepiploic artery grafting (16.9 vs 48.5%, P<0.0001) and those who required aortic non-touch technique (2.1 vs. 7.9%, P<0.001). The percentage of the patients receiving BITA grafting among the isolated CABG patients increased in the late period from 31.7% (331/1043) to 69.2% (227/328) (P<0.001), reflecting that a more aggressive approach towards bilateral ITA and arterial grafting has been taken in the late period. Overall operative mortality was 1.1% (n=6). Mediastinitis occurred in seven patients (1.3%). Of these, only one mediastinitis occurred in late period (0.4%). No mediastinitis occurred in 23 chronic renal dialysis patients. Among the 143 DM patients, there were three mediastinitis (2.1%). Of three, only one occurred in late period, yielding 1.3% mediastinitis rate. There was one mediastinitis (0.7%) among 134 elderly patients more than 70 years of age. Univariate analysis identified obesity as a risk factor for mediastinitis. And there was a trend of decreasing mediastinits in late period but did not reached a statistical significance (P<0.2). Multivariate analysis identified obesity and arteriosclerosis obliterates as independent risk factors. Neither diabetes mellitus, dialysis, female gender, nor old age were significant independent predictors of mediastinitis. Despite the significantly high percentage of high-risk patients in late group, there were no significant difference in mortality and morbidity between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Pedicled BITA grafting is feasible with acceptable morbidity and shouldn't be abandoned even in high-risk patients such as DM, old age, and dialysis, especially combined with pinpoint-hemostasis, avoiding excessive use of bone wax, and strict aseptic technique. These point require a surgical team familiar with these techniques to maintain adequate skills in conduit procurement.

An evaluation of coronary artery bypass grafting without aortic cross-clamping due to severely atherosclerotic ascending aorta.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in which aortic cross-clamping is not done due to severe atherosclerosis of the ascending aorta. METHODS: Subjects were 51 patients undergoing CABG without aortic cross-clamping during cardiopulmonary bypass under moderately hypothermic ventricular fibrillation in the 12 years from June 1988 to October 1999 (Group N). In some cases, empty beating or moderate hypothermic circulatory arrest was used. We compared these 51 with 1104 subjects undergoing conventional CABG with aortic cross-clamping and cardioplegic cardiac arrest in the 9 years from June 1988 to December 1997 (Group A). RESULTS: In all 6 cases with neurologic deficits, moderately hypothermic circulatory arrest was used during proximal anastomosis of saphenous vein grafts. Postoperative computed tomography scan showed them to have suffered infarction due to embolization. Multivariate analysis identified proximal saphenous vein grafting under moderately hypothermic circulatory arrest as a predictor of neurologic deficit. Complete revascularization was significantly lower in Group N. Actual survival and freedom from cardiac death were significantly lower in Group N. CONCLUSION: Manipulation of the atherosclerotic ascending aorta under moderately hypothermic circulatory arrest or ventricular fibrillation generates the highest risk of perioperative neurologic deficit and should thus be avoided. In-situ arterial grafting should be conducted with utmost care.