L. Bracamonte

Bio: L. Bracamonte is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Myxoma & Cardiothoracic surgery. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 6 publications receiving 174 citations.

[Intracardiac myxoma: surgical treatment with trans-septal approach]

Abstract: In the last 15 years, fifty-two cases of cardiac myxoma underwent surgical excision at La Pitie Hospital-Paris. They were 19 male and 32 female aging from 16 to 75 years (mean 15 +/- 10). Symptoms were congestive heart failure (55%), constitutional syndrome (35%), peripheral embolization (25%) and syncopal episodes (7%). Echocardiographic diagnosis was done in almost all cases. 47 tumors were found in the left atrium, 4 in the right and 1 in the right ventricule. Transeptal approach was used in most of the patients and myxomas were totally removed including a part of atrial septum, requiring patch reconstruction in 35 patients. Postoperative mortality was very low (1.9%). No complications nor recurrences have been reported in the long-term follow-up.

Heart myxoma. Surgical treatment

Abstract: We reviewed all the patients who underwent surgical excision of cardiac myxomas at La Pitie during the last fifteen years. Fifty-one cases were found (32 female and 19 male) aging from 16 to 75 years (mean 51). Congestive heart failure was the primary symptom present in 28 patients. Thirteen patients presented peripheral embolization, four with syncope and 11 with tachyarrhythmias. The diagnosis was made either by echocardiography or angiography. All of them had correct preoperative diagnoses, and no tumors were found incidentally at operation. Forty-six myxomas were localized in the left atrium, four in the right atrium and one in the right ventricle. All the patients underwent open-heart operation and myxomas were successfully removed with excision of a portion of normal atrial septum or wall. Path reconstruction of the atrial septum was required thirty-six times. Mortality after surgical excision is very low. Only one death (1.96%) occurred as a result of a postoperative low output syndrome. Late recurrences have been reported in other series, but no recurrences were diagnosed in our patients up to the present. Although the recurrence rate is low, long-term clinical and echocardiographic follow-up is recommended.

Surgical treatment of cardiac hydatid disease in 13 patients.

Abstract: Cardiac hydatidosis is an uncommon but potentially fatal disease. It remains endemic in developed and developing countries. Its clinical presentation ranges from an absence of symptoms to congestive heart failure or other life-threatening sequelae. Herein, we report our clinical experience with the disease. From 1991 through 2009, 7 male and 6 female patients (mean age, 36 ± 18.3 yr; age range, 10–68 yr) underwent surgical treatment at our hospital for cardiac hydatid disease. Cardiac hydatidosis was established as a component of multiorgan echinococcosis in 8 patients, and it was diagnosed upon echocardiographic examination in the other 5 during investigation of their nonspecific symptoms. Hydatid cysts were found in the left ventricle (in 5 patients); the right ventricle (in 3); the interventricular septum (in 2); and the interatrial septum, right atrium, and left atrium (in 1 each). All 13 patients underwent sternotomy and surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass. No intraoperative rupture or operative death occurred. The only sequela was complete atrioventricular block that necessitated pacemaker implantation in a patient whose hydatid cyst had involved the basal interventricular septum. All patients underwent subsequent treatment with albendazole (400 mg/d). One patient experienced a recurrence 1 year postoperatively. We discuss our surgical approaches, the outcomes in our patients, and diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations.