Journal and News Scan

A Canadian court has found that if two doctors are working together, both can be liable for negligent medical treatment where one was in charge and the other was sufficiently involved. The ruling resulted from a case involving an aortic rupture of a patient with a congenital heart condition during an angioplasty procedure. The cardiologist and vascular surgeon performing the procedure responded to the situation themselves, placing a covered stent to partially contain the patient's bleeding, rather than bringing in the hospital's cardiovascular surgery service to immediately perform a surgical repair. The patient saw a cardiovascular surgeon several hours later and underwent surgery to successfully repair her aorta, but she experienced serious injuries. The judge found that the need for cardiovascular surgery was inevitable and imminent and ruled that the appellants' failure to seek immediate and proper care for the patient made them liable for her injuries.

Cardiac operations after TAVR are increasing, and the interval between TAVR and operation is decreasing. Most cardiac operations are complex, high-risk reoperations, and isolated aortic valve replacement is rare. The findings in this study should be considered when TAVR is selected for low- to intermediate-risk patients, particularly with multiple cardiac pathologies not addressed by TAVR.

A year ago, a twelve-year-old girl became the youngest person in Canada undergo surgery to receive a total artificial heart. The device, which can essentially replace an entire human heart for a limited period of time, has only been used fifty-eight times in Canada to date. After receiving the device and a subsequent heart transplant a few months later, the patient has ongoing challenges but is now able to do many of the activities most kids her age do, including swimming four times a week.

In this article, Sinha et al performed a cross-sectional survey evaluating gender-related differences in congenital heart surgeon practice. They found that there were significant differences in the rate of discouragement for women to pursue a career in congenital heart surgery, as well as lower starting salaries and ranks.