Category: General

J Cardiothorac Surg. 2023 Dec 9;18(1):358. doi: 10.1186/s13019-023-02452-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hemopericardium is a serious complication that can occur after cardiac surgery. While most post-operative causes are due to inflammation and bleeding, patients with broken sternal wires and an unstable sternum may develop hemopericardium from penetrating trauma.

CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 62-year-old male who underwent triple coronary bypass surgery and presented five months later with sudden anterior chest wall pain. Chest computed tomography revealed hemopericardium with an associated broken sternal wire that had penetrated into the pericardial space. The patient underwent a redo-sternotomy which revealed a 3.5 cm bleeding, jagged right ventricular laceration that correlated to the imaging findings of a fractured sternal wire projecting in the pericardial space. The laceration was repaired using interrupted 4 – 0 polypropylene sutures in horizontal mattress fashion between strips of bovine pericardium. The patient’s recovery was uneventful and he was discharged on post-operative day four without complications.

CONCLUSION: Patients with broken sternal wires and an unstable sternum require careful evaluation and management as these may have potentially life-threatening complications if left untreated.

PMID:38071382 | PMC:PMC10710717 | DOI:10.1186/s13019-023-02452-6

Int J Surg Case Rep. 2023 Nov;112:108946. doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2023.108946. Epub 2023 Oct 10.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Surgical treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) includes endovenectomy followed by angioplasty of the inferior vena cava (IVC). Herein, we report a case of surgery using an open-chest approach in a patient with BCS. We modified the technique reported by Kuniyoshi et al. CASE PRESENTATION: A 45-year-old male, was diagnosed with BCS and referred to our hospital. We used an open-chest approach to remove stenosis in the IVC and angioplasty with a bovine pericardial patch. Endovenectomy and angioplasty were performed by clamping the stenosis above and below it with Pringle’s clamping under extracorporeal circulation. The patient is currently undergoing outpatient follow-up 14 months after the surgery, and his liver function and blood test results were normal, with no symptoms.

CLINICAL DISCUSSION: The main advantage of this technique is that the liver is not mobilized from the diaphragm, which allows for the preservation of collateral blood flow between the diaphragm and liver, reducing the amount of intraoperative blood loss and damage to the liver parenchyma due to intraoperative congestion. In addition, no mobilization of the liver from the diaphragm will prevent future surgical difficulties due to adhesions during total hepatectomy when liver transplantation becomes necessary.

CONCLUSION: The techniques described in this article include procedures that cardiovascular surgeons usually perform such as thoracotomy, pericardiotomy, and extracorporeal circulation. Collaborative work by hepatobiliary surgeons and cardiovascular surgeons can achieve successful outcomes with this procedure in patients with BCS.

PMID:37844384 | PMC:PMC10667757 | DOI:10.1016/j.ijscr.2023.108946