Eliza Rumiko Iwahashi

Ligation of the thoracic duct for the treatment of chylothorax in heart diseases.

In children, chylothorax occurs mainly after cardiac and thoracic surgeries. One of the recommended postsurgery treatments is ligation of the thoracic tract, when all other conservative treatments have failed. We report 4 cases of chylothorax in patients who were successfully treated with this approach, which resulted in a decrease in pleural drainage without recurrent chylothorax.

Persistence of hypoplastic and recoarcted fifth aortic arch associated with type A aortic arch interruption: Surgical and balloon angioplasty results in an infant

SummaryA rare aortic malformation, the persistence of the fifth aortic arch (PFAA) associated with coarctation of the aorta, is reported in a 3-month-old male infant who underwent an emergency surgical intervention at 10 days of life, to relieve a severe aortic coarctation by pericardial patch technique.A successful balloon angioplasty was performed 2 months later eliminating a recoarctation. The gradient fell from 77 mmHg to 0, but a definitive surgical intervention for recoarctation was necessary 14 months after angioplasty.

Epidemiologic investigation of an outbreak of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus primary bacteremia in a newborn intensive care unit

Infections due to coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) are an ever-increasing nosocomial problem, particularly in the pediatric population. The authors describe a cluster of three primary bloodstream infections due to CNS in a newborn intensive care unit that occurred between November 23 and December 2, 1992. Two children died as a direct consequence of the bacteremia; at autopsy, one had a large bacteria-containing thrombus extending from the insertion site of a central catheter to the superior vena cava. The children were placed in isolation, and the nursing and medical staff were given topical nasal mupirocin. Plasmid analysis performed later disclosed three different blood isolates that also were different from any of the staffs nasal isolates. The authors concluded that molecular methods such as plasmid analysis are important tools in identifying true outbreaks and can prevent needless interventions, such as those during this cluster.

Atresia of the left atrioventricular valve with patency of the aorta: anatomico-functional analysis of 23 patients

We analyzed the findings in 23 patients with atresia of the left atrioventricular valve and a patent aorta seen in the period from January 1980 to July 1989. Having divided the cases according to the anatomical findings, we made a subsequent analysis of the clinical and surgical results with the aim of establishing the management most likely to diminish risks, still high, in treatment of this complex anomaly. From the anatomical viewpoint, three variants were observed. In the first, made up of 15 cases, there was absence of the left atrioventricular connexion. The characteristic finding in the second group, with five cases, was an imperforate left atrioventricular valve in the setting of concordant atrioventricular connexions. The third group, of these cases, was dominated by the presence of isomerism of the atrial appendages, both appendages being of left morphology in one case, and of right morphology in the other two. Further anatomical variation was then found in each group. Nine of the 15 with absence of the left atrioventricular connexion had the right atrium connected to a dominant left ventricle in presence of a rudimentary and incomplete right ventricle associated with discordant ventriculo-arterial connexions, all of them being in usual atrial arrangement and three with pulmonary stenosis. The remaining six in this first variant had the right atrium connected to a dominant right ventricle. In the five patients with imperforate left atrioventricular valves, two had discordant and three had concordant ventriculo-arterial connexions. In the three cases with isomerism, two had absence of the left atrioventricular connexion, with a dominant right ventricle. The last patient had an imperforate left atrioventricular valve and a discordant ventriculo-arterial connexion. From the functional viewpoint, there were 14 patients (10 with absence of an atrioventricular connexion, four with imperforate atrioventricular valve) with congestive heart failure and nine patients (five from the first, one from second, and three from the third variant) with hypoxia. Long-term follow-up (median 16.4 months--varying from 1 to 41 months--in the group with congestion and 27.7 months--varying from 12 to 57 months--in those with hypoxia) showed favorable clinical evolution in 11 (91%). We conclude that an anatomico-functional division can point towards the most appropriate management in this complex anomaly.