Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
A 39-year-old man attempted to kill himself using a small knife to penetrate the left anterior chest wall because of trouble at work and with his girlfriend. On arrival at the emergency room, his consciousness was not clear and vital signs were unstable. The knife remained vertically located in the left anterior chest wall. A large left hemothorax ...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
A 78-year-old woman was admitted with transient unknown fever and old cerebral infarction. An echocardiogram demonstrated mild mitral valve regurgitation and high echogenic mass on the mitral posterior leaflet Surgery was performed with the diagnosis of a healed infective endocarditis. A sea anemone-like appearance tumor, 8 mm in diameter, was loca...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Reports of a cardiac operation in a patient with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura are scarce. Here we present a case of successful mitral valve replacement in a patient with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Preoperative treatment with high-dosage gamma-globulin successfully increased the platelet count from 50000/μl to 80000/μl. Twenty units...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Objective: The biological behavior of thymoma and its prognosis after surgical intervention remain still controversial. The efficacy of surgical treatment for thymoma was investigated by examining long-term follow-up data.Subjects and Methods: Follow-up data for patients undergoing surgical resection of histopathologically-confirmed thymoma between...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
A 46-year-old man with unstable angina underwent beating heart coronary bypass grafting for a left anterior descending coronary artery. Postoperative angiography showed intramuscular extravasation (6×8 mm) distal to the anastomosis, which was most likely the result of a needle injury caused by a snare during the operation. Follow-up angiography 2 w...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Objective: The enhanced generation of various chemical mediators is regarded as one of the mechanisms by which severe heart failure progresses to multiple organ failure. Platelet-activating factor is a phospholipid mediator which plays an important role in inflammatory reactions and circulatory shock. We studied the changes in platelet-activating f...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
An 8-year-old girl who weighed 42 kg presented Ebstein’s anomaly with severe tricuspid incompetence, and mild systemic cyanosis during exercise. A new reconstructive procedure for this complex anomaly was used. Oblique transference of the displaced posterior leaflet was performed, which resulted in plication of the atrialized ventricle and reductio...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Acute aortic occlusion is a rare but devastating complication of intra-aortic balloon pumping. Prompt diagnosis of aortic occlusion and immediate therapeutic decision making are keys for saving patients in such cases. We describe a 72-year-old man who underwent emergency surgical removal of a thrombus and aortoiliac bifurcated grafting for acute ao...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
The patient was a 65-year-old female with metastasis of thyroid papillary carcinoma at the right upper mediastinum. The tumor, which invaded almost the entire length of the right brachiocephalic vein, was resected via a modified trap-door thoracotomy. The modification was the additional resection of the first rib from inside the thorax, which provi...
Published in The Japanese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
We present a rare case of malignant pheochromocytoma in the left atrium and its surgical treatment. The patient was a 39-year-old male who presented a low-grade fever with perspiration. A large tumor was first detected in the left atrium by chest CT, and was confirmed by ultrasonic echo cardiogram and chest MRI. A left adrenal tumor was indicated a...
