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Journal and News Scan
A patient from Rwanda, who traveled to a medical center in Israel to undergo an operation for the congenital disease Tetralogy of Fallot, was not able to accept transfusions of donated blood due to her faith. Through arrangements with a blood bank, the hospital managed to obtain units of blood from the patient herself to be used in the operation, allowing the life-saving procedure to take place. The operation was successful; the patient returned to recovery at the heart center.
The CSP 474 trial challenges some of the conventional knowledge around graft choice in CABG surgery, as was presented at the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) conference. The trial results showed that when an adjunctive graft was needed in patients with coronary disease, use of the radial artery instead of a saphenous vein did not give any survival advantage. However, multiarterial grafts remain the best option when performed by an experienced surgeon.
Postoperative bleeding in patients undergoing cardiac surgery is a frequent problem, and this study aimed to test the contribution of metabolic perturbations to platelet dysfunction after cardiac surgery. Patients undergoing elective surgical aortic valve replacement were included in the study. The results suggested that preoperative levels of arachidonic acid may be more relevant than platelet count to anticipate and prevent postoperative blood loss in these patients.
With the aim to compare the pain medicines bupivacaine and liposomal bupivacaine, minimally invasive lobectomy patients were randomly assigned to either medicine and monitored after surgery. Both postoperative pain level and treatment cost were compared. The study concluded that the morphine use, long-term narcotic use, and overall cost metrics between bupivacaine and LipoB were similar.