Search Tag: heart surgery
2016 12 Jan
A review article to be published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery suggests the use of statins before and after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. The drugs are believed to reduce cardiac complications, such as atrial fibrillation, following surgery as well as the risk of death during and after surgery. Some of the key points of the...Read more
2015 12 Oct
Research scientist Sigrid Kaarstad Dahl and her colleagues have generated on-screen models of a patient's beating heart and have stimulated patient-specific blood flow samples in order to predict the effects of heart surgery. The on-screen heart models can enable cardiac specialists and engineers to run simulations of a variety of surgical procedures...Read more
2015 24 Mar
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (NC, USA) have found that the results of a blood test done immediately after heart surgery could be a meaningful indicator of postoperative stroke risk. The finding is published online in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery . An acutely elevated level of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) — a measure of kidney...Read more
2015 05 Mar
For patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, according to researchers, the anaesthesiologist managing the procedure can have a major impact on the risk of adverse outcomes. The study found "substantial variability" in death or major complications across anaesthesiologists, with close to a twofold difference in risk for CABG patients...Read more
2015 01 Mar
Aiming to improve public awareness and understanding of cardiothoracic surgical outcomes, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has released the first publicly accessible national report of surgical outcomes from its Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD). The CHSD is a component of the STS National Database, which is widely considered the gold standard...Read more
2015 01 Feb
Aside from making surgery safer for children with congenital heart disease, 3D printing technology can reduce the duration as well as the number of invasive procedures required — thus minimising healthcare costs. A case in point is when a cardiac surgeon in the US recently used a 3D printed heart as a model to plan a life-saving procedure for his young...Read more
2014 28 Nov
A new study has found that US children’s hospitals providing the highest-quality care for children undergoing heart surgery also appear to deliver care most efficiently at a low cost. The study, led by the University of Michigan, covered 30,670 heart surgery patients aged 0-18 years across 27 different hospitals. The findings were presented at the American...Read more
2014 29 Jul
One of the most common postoperative complications seen after open heart surgeries is an infection at the surgical site. The infection can develop in the surgical wound of either the patient's sternum or leg. It is believed that surgical site infections (SSIs) affect 2 to 20% of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures and can be devastating...Read more
2014 02 Jun
Patients requiring coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) operations may be less likely to incur acute postoperative kidney injuries when they are not put on a heart-lung machine (off-pump procedure). However, kidney function one year after surgery is not better preserved compared to on-pump patients. These findings are reported in JAMA’s June 4 issue...Read more