Technical aspect in renal artery embolization in renal tumors: A case series.

INTRODUCTION: Renal artery embolization aims to reduce blood loss during surgery. Various embolizing agents are available, each of which has its own indications appropriate for various vascular anatomy and renal pathology. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We report three cases of renal artery embolization prior to surgical nephrectomy using vascular plug and other embolizing agents. In two cases, complete blood flow occlusion was achieved with minimal blood loss during the subsequent surgery. One case only achieved reduced blood flow, but subsequent nephrectomy and patient recovery was successful. DISCUSSION: Renal artery embolization prior to malignant mass resection is a well-known, potentially beneficial procedure. The rationale that supports this procedure is clear, but its reported outcome in the literature is still inconclusive. It is important to understand its benefits, complications, and pitfalls to achieve better outcome. CONCLUSION: In our cases, renal artery embolization provided satisfactory reduction in bleeding during nephrectomy, and therefore has the potential to be employed as a standard procedure for future surgeries.

Performing cardiac surgery during COVID-19 pandemic in Surabaya, Indonesia: A single-center retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers are still the front liners in health care services, and have major roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a resource-limited country like Indonesia, it is necessary to provide safe screening and management both for patients and healthcare workers to minimize the transmission. We report our experience in the cardiac surgery department on how to provide safe management during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was performed in a single-tertiary-center cardiac surgery department in Surabaya and included all patients who underwent cardiac surgery during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also collected the patients from a 1-year period before the pandemic as the comparison data. Analysis of the patient characteristics, operative data, and postoperative outcome, was performed. This study also provides our experience in changes of admission in the cardiac surgery preoperative system that can be utilized for others. RESULTS: A total of 179 patients were admitted to and had cardiac surgery. Of these, 3.80% (n = 7) were COVID-19 confirmed by a real-time polymerase chain reaction. Five patients were delayed to have cardiac surgery with no mortality or morbidity reported in these patients. During the period after changes of admission procedural in cardiac surgery patients, there were no healthcare workers infected by COVID-19 by patient transmission in our center (0%). CONCLUSION: Our study reported a systematic screening and that possible delay in cardiac surgery appears to be feasible and safe, both for patients and for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronary artery size as a predictor of Y-graft patency following coronary artery bypass surgery.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to evaluate the association between target vessel size and graft patency in the right IMA-right coronary territory anastomosis.A total of 402 patients who underwent CABG between 2005 and 2016 using the right IMA Y-graft to the posterolateral branch or posterior descending artery were enrolled. Preoperative coronary angiography was utilized to measure the size of the target coronary arteries in the right territory. Follow-up angiography and computed tomography at 6 to 12 months were used to determine graft patency.Thirty patients (7.5%) were found to have occluded graft. Larger target vessel size was associated with lower risk of graft occlusion (OR: 0.18, 95% CI:0.05-0.62, P = .007). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the cutoff-value of 1.93 mm was found to have the maximum sum of sensitivity and specificity for graft patency (Area under the curve (AUC): 0.65, P = .01). Excluding patients with right coronary artery total occlusion, the discriminative performance of target vessel size became more prominent (AUC: 0.76, P < .01), with same cutoff value.In the setting of bilateral IMA composite grafting, the patency of right IMA to right coronary territory was influenced by the size of the target coronary artery. The influence of target coronary artery size was prominent in non-total occlusion patients. Careful selection of a target anastomosis site is recommended.