Showing papers in "The Annals of Thoracic Surgery in 2003"

TL;DR: The pulmonary endarterectomy operation is considered curative and therefore greatly superior to transplantation for this condition and current techniques of operation make the procedure relatively safe.

TL;DR: There is value in debulking surgery in invasive thymoma, but not in thymic carcinoma, and it is doubt that adjuvant therapy is valuable for patients with totally resected invasiveThymic epithelial tumors.

TL;DR: Used in combination, ROMB and ROM may provide the surgical team with additional information to evaluate the quality of their care as well as valuable insights to allow them to focus on areas for improvement.

TL;DR: It is believed beating heart CABG is associated with a lower incidence of stroke and may therefore improve patient outcomes, and multivariable analysis revealed 10 variables that were independent predictors of stroke.

TL;DR: The existence of multiple pathways to trigger this inflammatory response hampers efforts at its attenuation and leaves much investigation to be done as the quest to understand the body's inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass continues.

TL;DR: TGF-beta1 is characteristically present within calcific aortic stenosis cusps, and mediates the calcification of aorti valve interstitial cells in culture through mechanisms involving apoptosis.

TL;DR: These data constitute the largest prospective outcomes cohort in the literature and document a near 50% morbidity rate and 10% mortality rate after esophagectomy in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers from 1991 to 2001.

TL;DR: It is confirmed that adult mesenchymal stem cells isolated from fatty tissue can be chemically transformed into cardiomyocytes and can potentially be a source of autologous cells for myocardial repair.

TL;DR: It is found that aortic root enlargement or an increase of aorti root size during pregnancy in patients with BAVD, and Marfan syndrome is associated with a considerable risk for the occurrence of Type A dissection.

TL;DR: As heparin-induced thrombocytopenia antibodies are transient, unfractionated Heparin alone is appropriate in a patient with previous heparIn-inducedThrombocytes whose antibodies have disappeared, as options include an alternative anticoagulant (bivalirudin, lepirud in, or danaparoid) or combining unfractionsated hepar in with a platelet antagonist (epoprostenol or tirofiban).

TL;DR: In the first minutes of reperfusion, the myocardium can be damaged by contracture development, causing mechanical stiffness, tissue necrosis, and the "stone heart" phenomenon.

TL;DR: Single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery is safe and feasible for the treatment of selected lung tumors and additional studies are planned to investigate the optimal radiation dose, best motion-suppression technique, and overall treatment efficacy.

TL;DR: Thoracic sympathectomy is a simple, effective, safe method for the treatment of hyperhidrosis, resulting in an improved quality of life for patients, and this change in the questionnaire documents this change.

TL;DR: Perioperative hyperglycemia is associated with increased resource utilization in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting with and without diabetes.

TL;DR: The data suggest that ATAA formation is associated with stiffening and weakening of the aortic wall, which may potentiate aneurysm rupture.

TL;DR: Concerns that current CPB management guidelines accepting extreme hemodilution may contribute to postoperative acute renal and other organ injury after cardiac surgery are added.

TL;DR: Lungs from non-heart-beating donors topically cooled in situ for 6 hours after 65 minutes of warm ischemia were assessed ex vivo and found to have normal function and transplanted and retained normal function during a 24-hour observation period.

TL;DR: Operations that include conduit placement and replacement can be performed with low early mortality and quality of life was excellent for most patients despite the need for reoperation.

TL;DR: Off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting appears to reduce length of hospital stay, operative morbidity, and operative mortality relative to on-p pump CABG.

TL;DR: Airway stenting provides prompt and durable palliation in unresectable patients with central airway obstruction and frequently multiple stents and multiple procedures will be necessary to maintain a satisfactory airway.

TL;DR: Postoperative prophylactic radiotherapy improved the 5-year survival rate in esophageal cancer patients with positive lymph node metastases and in patients with stage III disease compared with similar patients who did not receive radiation therapy.

TL;DR: Compared with CABG, OPCAB may reduce neurologic and clinical morbidity as well as cost and perform better on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (total and recognition scores) at both 2 weeks and at 1 year, whereas CabG performance was statistically unchanged for all cognitive measures.

TL;DR: Joining the PM side-by-side has an obvious immediate effect on mitral leaflet mobility by suppressing the tethering due to displacement of the PM, which may be beneficial on local ventricular dynamics.

TL;DR: Local MSC implantation induces a neovascular response resulting in a significant increase in blood flow to the ischemic limb, and marrow stromal cells are also capable of spontaneously regenerating the various components of muscular tissues.

TL;DR: Whenever possible, risk-adjusted outcome data should supplement or supplant volume standards, and continuous quality improvement programs should seek to emulate the processes of high-volume, high-quality providers.

TL;DR: Aggressive repair of accompanying tricuspid regurgitation should be undertaken at the time of initial surgery in patients with huge left atrium or atrial fibrillation, even if preoperative TR is 2+.

TL;DR: Now, 50 years after Dr Gibbon's seminal achievement, patients with debilitating valve disease can have elective valve replacement with an operative mortality approaching 1% to 2% and a low lifetime complication rate.

TL;DR: As preoperative proximal coronary stenosis decreased, ITA patency declined; however, at no degree of stenosis was there a sharp decline, and the nature of this relationship indicates ITAs should not be abandoned at moderate grades of stenotic.

TL;DR: Recommendations are suggested aimed at improving the psychological evaluation and management of heart surgery candidates, as well as postbypass patients, in the hope of improving quality of life and cardiovascular outcomes in these patients.

TL;DR: Patients with an adequate two-ventricle repair have significantly higher hospital survival, whereas those with single ventricle physiology or need for dialysis have decreased survival.