Organization of heart transplantation in Italy.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Marcelletti.
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The case of an infant with the scimitar syndrome and pulmonary hypertension is presented. After surgical intervention with ligation of the abnormal arterial supply to the hypoplastic lung, the pulmonary hypertension disappeared. This was proven by cardiac catheterization after the operation. The abnormal drainage from the right lung into the inferior vena cava was not corrected. The child has had no complaints since except for recurrent pulmonary infections.
Inadvertent transection of an anomalous left coronary artery, which originated from the right coronary artery, occurred during repair of tetralogy of Fallot in a 2-year-old child. An aorta-coronary bypass graft was constructed with a size 4 polytetrafluoroethylene conduit. Early recatheterization showed patency of the polytetrafluoroethylene graft, but a myocardial scintiscan done 3 months after operation demonstrated reduced perfusion of the areas supplied by the left coronary system. Preoperative aortography or selective coronary angiography is mandatory to avoid this potentially lethal complication. Future surgical options are discussed.
To identify the pattern of pulmonary anatomy and pulmonary blood supply, we analyzed the angiocardiograms of 40 patients with pulmonary atresia and complex congenital heart disease. All patients but two (95%) had confluent pulmonary arteries supplied by a patent ductus arteriosus. These two patients (5%) had nonconfluent pulmonary arteries, one with major systemic-pulmonary collateral arteries and absent patent ductus arteriosus and the other with a patent ductus arteriosus supplying the right lung and small collateral arteries supplying the left. The low incidence of pulmonary arterial abnormalities and the uniform pattern of pulmonary blood supply make the patients with pulmonary atresia and complex congenital heart disease potential candidates for palliative operation without cardiac catheterization in the neonatal period.
Cross-sectional echocardiographic images from 26 patients presenting pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum were compared with anatomical findings in specimens having the same anomaly. The echocardiographic study was based on a subcostal approach using oblique projections, and specimens were cut in the same planes. Patients were classified into three groups. In the first group the morphologically right ventricle was represented by all of its three component parts: inlet, trabecular and outlet (12 cases). The second group was made up of patients with overgrowth of the apical component. Consequently the right ventricle had only two effective components: inlet and outlet (6 cases). In the third group, muscular overgrowth of both outlet and apical portions meant that the right ventricle was represented only by an inlet portion (8 cases). The good morphologic assessment and correlation with anatomic cuts, obtained in particular by using the "right oblique equivalent" view can avoid invasive study in this malformation prior to palliative surgery.
Twenty-seven patients with pulmonary atresia and intact interventricular septum were treated with prostaglandin E1 infusion, followed by standard or modified Blalock-Taussig shunt. Three infants died. In all three there was anatomic and functional patency of the ductus arteriosus and the surgical systemic-pulmonary shunt. The unusual clinical course in these cases suggests that in the clinical management of patients with pulmonary atresia and intact interventricular septum after a shunt operation, particular attention must be paid to the problems associated with persistent ductal patency.
Ninety consecutive patients with atrioventricular canal were studied to identify the association between left-sided obstructive lesions and Down's syndrome. Three groups were recognized: Group I, 76 patients with atrioventricular canal and no left-sided obstructions; Group II, nine patients with atrioventricular canal and left-sided inlet obstructions; Group III, five patients with atrioventricular canal and left-sided outlet obstructions. Of the 90 patients studied, 47 had Down's syndrome and only one of these had a left-sided obstructive lesion. Of 43 without Down's syndrome, 13 or 30% had left-sided obstructive lesions with predominating lesions at the inlet level caused by right ventricular dominance.
Membranous obstruction of the inferior vena cava is a rare congenital anomaly that may present clinical features of Budd-Chiari syndrome caused by chronic obstruction of the hepatic drainage. We report membranous obstruction of the inferior vena cava in a 5-year-old boy. Surgical repair was prompted by signs and symptoms of hepatic venous obstruction. To our knowledge, this is the youngest patient successfully operated on for this anomaly.
Limited experimental and clinical experience with extracardiac bypass of the mitral valve has been reported. We describe the case history of a 3-year-old child in whom a left atrial-left ventricular valved conduit was successfully used to bypass a severely hypoplastic parachute mitral valve. The potential applications of this unconventional surgical option are reviewed.
Before Mustard's operation 27 children, from 2 days to 11 months old, with simple or complex transposition of the great vessels, underwent an electrocardiogram at rest. After operation, all the children underwent a standard electrocardiogram and 24 hours continuous Holter monitoring. Successive electrocardiograms at rest were recorded in all patients, and eleven children were successfully examined by dynamic electrocardiogram. The electrocardiogram at rest showed a sinusal rhythm in 66.7 of the patients; during the follow-up, in 33.3% non sinusal rhythm was recorded. The continuous 24 hours dynamic electrocardiogram, immediately after surgery, revealed 25.9% of the patients with non-sinusal rhythm. After 7 months, the Holter monitoring showed, in one case, a severe sinus node disfunction. Our data and those of the literature confirm the importance to follow these patients during a long period of time, because it was found that, even bedately, can develop serious arrhythmias.
Subcostal oblique 2-dimensional echocardiography was performed in 64 infants younger than 2 years with complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA) (situs solitus, concordant atrioventricular and discordant ventriculoarterial connections). All patients examined before cardiac catheterization had a correct diagnosis by 2-dimensional echocardiography using the subcostal oblique views. Twelve patients had associated left ventricular (LV) outflow tract obstruction and 7 had right ventricular (RV) outflow obstruction. The standard parasternal views failed to diagnose obstruction in 1 patients with LV outflow obstruction and 5 with RV outflow obstruction; the subcostal left oblique cut and long axis of the left ventricle visualized all left-sided obstructions, and right-sided obstructions were correctly displayed in 5 of 7 cases using a combination of left oblique and right oblique cuts. Two-dimensional echocardiographic subcostal oblique views allow an excellent definition of the morphologic characteristics of RV and LV outflow tracts in patients with TGA and improve the diagnosis of the outflow obstruction in these malformations.
The modified Fontan operation, which consists of ventricular exclusion by obliteration of the right atrioventricular ostium, requires a technique that provides firm and permanent occlusion while preserving the atrioventricular node and bundle. Ten patients underwent such an operation. In 5 of them, closure of the right atrioventricular ostium was achieved by suturing a patch into the valve leaflets; in the other 5, the ventricle was excluded by a patch sutured into the right atrial wall above the annulus fibrosus. None of the patients who underwent this procedure experienced heart block postoperatively. However, three instances of late patch dehiscence occurred, each in the group of patients in whom the patch had been attached to the valve leaflets. We conclude that both patching techniques are safe as far as the atrioventricular node and bundle are concerned but that permanent occlusion is better obtained by implanting the patch into the atrial wall. Therefore, we prefer to use this technique.
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Bronchial compression by a dilated left pulmonary artery complicated the postoperative course in two infants: one after a Mustard operation for transposition of the great arteries, restrictive ventricular septal defect, and moderate pulmonary stenosis, the second after correction of tetralogy of Fallot with absent pulmonary valve. In both cases the bronchial compression was successfully treated by division of the left pulmonary artery and its prolongation by interposition of a conduit.
Two-dimensional echocardiography in the right oblique subxiphoid view (ROSV) was used to visualize all right ventricular components in 351 patients younger than 2 years of age (100 normal and 251 with various types of congenital heart disease). The ROSV, which is anterior and parallel to the ventricular septum, displays all right-sided cardiac components, the left atrium and the aorta. This view provided the correct diagnosis in patients with pulmonary stenosis or atresia with intact ventricular septum, Ebstein's anomaly, tricuspid atresia, infundibular ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot and truncus arteriosus. In all patients studied with the ROSV, an excellent definition of morphologic characteristics, equivalent to that in the right oblique axial angiocardiographic view, was achieved. The ROSV should be used routinely to delineate the right ventricular anatomy in all infants with congenital heart disease.
The results of early extubation after open heart surgery for congenital heart disease in 209 consecutive patients have been reviewed. No patient younger than 3 months of age, 52% of those between 3 and 12 months, and 88% of those older than 12 months had the tracheal tube removed in the operating theatre. Four patients required reintubation of the trachea, three because of respiratory difficulty and one because of cerebral oedema. There were two deaths in the extubated group. Twelve patients had PaO2 values less than 8.0 kPa after operation, despite adequate oxygen therapy. In four of these, this was related to persistent intracardiac shunting. It is concluded that early extubation after open heart surgery for congenital heart disease has minimal risk in carefully selected patients.
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