• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.4 s.273
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• pp.297-300
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• 2007

Idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome is a rare systemic, leukoproliferative disorder characterized by eosinophilmediated tissue injury causing multiple organ failure, including the heart. Cardiac involvement occurs in more than 75% of patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome. Cardiac manifestations include subendocardial fibrosis, thrombus leading to peripheral emboli, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and valvular dysfunction. It is more common in men than in women (9 : 1), and trends to present between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Presentation in childhood is unusual. We report for the first time a case of a 58-year-old man with idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome manifested by prosthetic aortic valve dysfunction that was successfully treated by steroid and hydroxyurea therapy after surgical valvular replacement.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.304-307
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• 2010

A 5-day-old neonate (body weight=2.4 kg) with coarctation of the aorta and critical aortic stenosis underwent an interventional balloon valvuloplasty for aortic stenosis. During the intervention, cardiac arrest occurred due to injury of the right carotid artery by the guide wire. An extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO) was applied. After 1 day's support, total surgical correction was achieved; however, in the immediate postoperative period, cardiac function was severely depressed. We applied a bi-ventricular assist device (bi-VAD) instead of an ECMO and we were able to wean the patient off the bi-VAD device after 3 days' support. The patient was discharged without severe complications.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.164-167
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• 2010

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during acute respiratory failure due to any cause aids in the recovery of respiratory function. The use of ECMO for acute respiratory failure due to near drowning was reported to be a successful therapeutic option in those patients who do not respond to optimal conventional therapies. We performed veno-venous ECMO for 2 acute respiratory failures due to near-drownings. All cannulations were performed percutaneously via both femoral veins. The 2 patients were successfully weaned off ECMO, but one patient experienced diffuse hypoxic brain damage and a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.562-564
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• 2010

Lymphorrhea is a common complication after inguinal dissection for exposure of the femoral artery. Injury of the lymphatics occurs frequently because they are anatomically close to blood vessels. Uncontrolled lymph drainage increases postoperative morbidity, and wound infection may follow. Despite current treatment options, lymphorrhea after inguinal dissection is still difficult to manage and results in a prolonged hospital stay. A vacuum-assisted closure device was used in a 72-year-old woman who had lymphorrhea after vascular surgery by groin incision. Vacuum-assisted control for lymphorrhea resulted in earlier closure of the wound and reduced the length of hospital stay.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.657-661
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• 2009

Intramural esophageal dissection is a rare disorder that's characterized by a lengthy laceration between the mucosal and submucosal layers of the esophageal wall, and the esophageal wall is without perforation. The three different types of acute esophageal injury are a mucosal tear (Mallory-Weiss syndrome), full-thickness rupture (Boerhaave's syndrome) and intramural esophageal dissection. Most intramural esophageal dissections respond to conservative management with a very good prognosis. This rare condition should be considered in patients who present with acute chest pain, dysphagia or odynophagia, and particularly in the presence of a bleeding disorder or where there has been recent administration of antiplatelet medication, anticoagulantsorthrombolyticsto avoid inappropriate treatment with surgery. We present here a rare case of intramural dissection of the esophagus that occurred when the patient was taking anti platelet medication.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.901-913
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• 1989

This study was investigated under the postulation that activation of intracellular calcium- calmodulin complex during ischemia-reperfusion leads to myocardial injury. The protective effects of calcium channel blocker, diltiazem and calmodulin inhibitors, trifluoperazine, flunarizine and calmidazolium from ischemic injury in rat hearts were observed by using Langendorff apparatus when the antagonists were infused for 3 min in the beginning of ischemia. Thereby, an increase in resting tension developed during 30-min ischemia was analyzed with regard to [1] the degree of cardiac functional recovery following 60-min reperfusion, [2] changes in biochemical variables evoked during 30-min ischemia. The results obtained were as follows: l. In the ischemic group, the resting tension was increased by 4.1*0.2 g at 30-min ischemia. However, the increase in resting tension was markedly reduced not only by pretreatment with diltiazem [3.3 p M] but also with calmodulin inhibitors, trifluoperazine [3.3 p M], flunarizine [0.5 p M] and calmidazolium [0.5 p M], respectively. 2. Recovery of myocardial contractility, +dF /dt and coronary flow were much reduced when evoked by reperfusion in the ischemic group. These variables were significantly improved either by pretreatment with diltiazem or with calmodulin inhibitors. 3. The resting tension increment evoked during ischemia was significantly inversely correlated with the degree of cardiac function recovered during reperfusion. 4. Following 30-min ischemia, the production of malondialdehyde and release of lysosomal enzyme were much increased in association with a decrease in creatine kinase activity. 5. The increases in malondialdehyde production and release of free lysosomal enzyme were suppressed by pretreatment with calmodulin inhibitors as well as diltiazem. Likewise, the decrease of creatine kinase activities was prevented by these calcium antagonists. With these results, it is indicated that a increase in resting tension observed during ischemia has an inverse relationship to the cardiac function recovered following reperfusion, and further, the later may be significantly dependent on the degree of biochemical alterations occurred during ischemia such as decrease in creatine kinase activity, increased production of malondialdehyde and increased release of free lysosomal enzyme. Thus it is concluded that calmodulin plays a pivotal role in the process of ischemic injury.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 1997

Between May, 1994 and December, 1995, 122 adult cardiac surgical procedures requiring cardiopulmonary bypa s were performed at Kang Dong Sacred Heart Hospital, including 18 cases(14.8%) that were associated with preoperative(n:9), intraoperative(n=7), postoperative(n:2) use of an IABP (intra-aortic balloon pump). The reasons for IABP were low cardiac output and PTCA(percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) failure in preoperative period, CPB(cardiopulmonary bypass) weaning difficulty in intraoperative period, and intractable arrhythmia in postoperative period. The mean age of the IABP patients was 61.8 $\pm$ 6.9 years(range, 39 to 75years). The overall hospital mortalities in patients with preoperative and intraoperative IABP insertion were 3 and 42.9% respectively. Two patients with postoperative IABP insertion are alive. The rate of IABP weaning is 66.7% for preoperative group, 85.7% for intraoperative group and 100% for postoperative group . In conclusion, if there were no irreversible myocardial damages, IABP could be used safely and emergently at any perioperative period for hemo ynamic stability, CPB weaning, and to overcome low cardiac output syndrome.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1219-1224
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• 1997

Although several reports were presented recently about bronchial arterial revascularization in clinical lung transplantation, one factor peculiar to the lung transplantation is the ischemia of the donor bronchus. Poor bronchial healing occurs frequently following clinical lung transplantation and this has been major cause of mortality and morbidity. There have been many attempts to solve bronchial anastomotic complications. Telescoping technique, one of those attempts, was advocated by San Antonio Group recently. This experiment was per(armed to evaluate the effect of telescoping anastomotic technique upon th healing of the tracheo-bronchial anastomosis. We used rabbits(weighing about 800 g) as experimental animal. Method: Resection of middle one third of cervical trachea and reanastomosis was performed by simple interrupted anastomotic technique in Group 1(n=15) and by telescoping anastomotic technique in Group 2(n= 15). Result: Anastomotic sites in the telescoping technique group showed significant increase of fibrosis in the early postoperative days(< Sdays) and remarkable band-like fibrous union compared to the simple interrupted group.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.63-66
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• 2010

Apical muscular ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are relatively rare conditions among all the different types of VSDs. Apical VSDs are difficult to treat because of they are difficult to visualize through a trans-atrioventricular approach, and especially in infants. Treatment by left ventriculotomy is associated with long-term ventricular dysfunction. Catheter-based intervention still shows less than satisfactory results and this type of intervention may not be possible in small infants. This report describes the benefits of right apical ventriculotomy in terms of successful closure of the lesion without harming the ventricular function.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.403-406
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• 2014

A 6-year-old female Maltese (body weight, 3.1 kg) without clinical signs was referred for further evaluation of the cause of cardiac murmur. Thoracic radiography revealed right-sided cardiomegaly. Echocardiography showed marked hypertrophic remodeling of the right ventricular free wall and an anomalous muscular bundle and fibrous nodule near the subinfundibular portion of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), indicating a double-chambered right ventricle (DCRV). The turbulent flow from the anomalous muscular bundle to the main pulmonary artery was 4.6 m/sec, in addition to the tricuspid valvular regurgitation of 4.4 m/sec and main pulmonary artery flow of 1.1 m/sec. The dog is receiving atenolol (0.5 mg/kg) to minimize the deleterious cardiac effects of the high afterload, even though she remains asymptomatic. This report describes a case of DCRV, a rare congenital heart disease in dogs in South Korea.