Marcelo Campos Christo

Pseudo-aneurisma de artéria subclávia pós fratura de clavícula: relato de caso

The authors describe the left subclavian artery pseudo-aneurysm formation after blunt trauma followed by left clavicular fracture. Comments and a brief review of the literature are also mentioned.

Rotura ventricular após substituição da valva mitral

Between 1979 and 1988 four fatal cases of left ventricular disruption after mitral valve replacement were registered among 332 patients submitted to mitral valve replacement, with two different types of porcine prosthesis in isolated or combined operations. All patients were elderly women (mean age 58) with predominant mitral insufficiency. Complications occurred after isolated MVR in 3 patients and in 1 patient after MVR combined with coronary artery by-pass. Damage appeared to have been caused by rhythmical pulling exerted by sorrounding myocardium against a hypocinetic ventricular wall locally ischemic by compression of a viciously positioned prosthesis. The mis-evaluation of the mitral annulus was induced by the usage of innadequate sizers used in profoundly relaxed heart under cardioplegia. The profile of the prosthesis probably influenced the type of lesion. Modifications in the sizers head and the usage of flexible and malleable sizer-holders, that could permit a more accurate position of sizers head in the mitral annulus are suggested. Possible etiological co-factors are: elderly patients, particularly women, with myocardial lesions secondary to overzealous resection of papillary posterior muscle or of the mitral cusp, and the loss of the internal buttress of the myocardium after resection of subvalvar apparatus (untethered ventricle). Preserving chordae tendinae of the annulus of mural leaflet could help the prevention of these complications.

Partial left ventriculectomy: a retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: To identify useful predictive data on chance mechanisms of postoperative outcome, the impact on symptoms of terminal heart failure - after partial left ventriculectomies (PLV) - was critically evaluated through the analysis of results, on accumulated descriptive data on reports, between 1995 and 1998. METHOD: Available routine clinical data on surgical aspects and clinical outcomes were gathered and, when possible, validated for comparative analysis. RESULTS: PLV can provide a significant short to medium term amelioration in the quality-of-life in event-free survivors, but it was also watched out that in important proportion of them - as an evolutive sequence - PLV was incapable of changing the myocardial fibers leading tendency to conservatism of the preoperative vicious geometric dynamic pattern in late evolution. Importantly, the LV end-diastolic echocardiographic diameter of 7.5 cm (± 1.4 cm) was the steadiest quantitative significant numerical appeal to heart reduction surgery, in a setting of 465 patients, aged two to 74 years. And in a succession of individual reports of PLV results, whose mortality varied from 0 a 60%, survival after PLV showed a significant relationship with morphologic evolution of cardiomyocytes, in postoperative, and augmented in absolute values in patients with progressive ventricular dysfunction, treated with the insertion of LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Devices). CONCLUSION: The material impossibility of identifying useful qualified predictors on chance mechanisms of postoperative outcome emerged as the crucial limitation for current usage of surgical reversal of left ventricular structural chamber dilation - to treat dilated cardiomyopathies - despite accumulated numerical values and clinical experiences.

Influência do isoflurano na contratilidade miocárdica e fluxo coronariano de corações isolados de ratos

Eighteen adult rat hearts were studied by Langendorffs Technique under Krebs-Henseleit solution perfusion (90 ± 10 cm of H2O pressure, 36.5 ± 0.5°C temperature). Nine rats were assigned to two groups: Group I - control group and Group II - isoflurane group. Hearts in Group II were treated with isoflurane at 1.5%. After stabilization during 15 minutes, initial values were obtained (t0), the next parameters were registered over the following periods: 1, 2, 4, 6, 10 minutes, respectively. There were no statistically significant variations in systolic pressure nor in dp/dt (p > 0.05) in period t1 in both groups. An increase was observed in diastolic pressure, statistically significant in Group II (4.8 mmHg - t0 period; 12.8 mmHg - t1 period). There was a decrease in heart rate and increase in coronary flow in Group II, statistically significant(p < 0.05), one minute after drug infusion. The coronary flow decreased progressively in every recovery period (t2 t0 t5) in Group II (p < 0.05). During the same periods there were no statistically significant variations in Group I. Isoflurane increases coronary flow during its administration, decreasing it during the recovery periods; it decreases heart rate, increases diastolic pressure and shows evidence of myocardial contractility depression in isolated rat hearts.