Steven H. Ginsberg

Left Atrial Mass During a Minimally Invasive Thoracic Mitral Valve Replacement

n 1 p e c t w e t A 72-YEAR-OLD man with a history of mitral regurgitation presented for minimally invasive mitral valve surgery hrough a right thoracotomy approach. Two introducers were nserted into the right internal jugular vein for the placement of etrograde cardioplegia and pulmonary artery venting catheters Endoplegia and Endovent, Edwards Lifesciences Inc, Irvine, A). The retrograde catheter was guided percutaneously through he coronary sinus ostium using a modified bicaval transesophaeal echocardiographic view and was advanced slowly while onitoring its position. The final position was confirmed when nflation of the balloon with 0.25 mL of saline resulted in a entricularized waveform. After routine administration of antegrade ardioplegia, retrograde cardioplegia was initiated through the coro-