The optimal timing of cardiac surgery for infective endocarditis in patients with severe brain complication remains unclear. We present here the successful surgical treatment of a case of infected mitral endocarditis with intractable heart failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and cerebral infarction with hemorrhage. A 37 year-old woman who received chemotherapy for breast cancer developed mitral infective endocarditis perhaps caused by infection of the implanted central venous access device and was referred to our hospital for an emergency operation. On admission, she had a mild fever and showed motor aphasia and right-sided hemiplegia. Brain CT scan findings revealed a cerebral infarction in the area of the left middle cerebral artery and a cerebral hemorrhage in the right occipital lobe. Echocardiography showed severe mitral regurgitation with huge mobile vegetation. Chest X-ray revealed severe pulmonary congestion and laboratory data showed DIC. After the mitral valve replacement with a bioprosthetic valve following complete excision of infected tissue, she was extubated on the first postoperative day with dramatic improvement of infectious signs and heart failure. Postoperative brain CT showed a new small brain hemorrhage, but no aggravation of the preoperative cerebral lesion. After she underwent surgical drainage for brain abscess on the 15th postoperative day, her postoperative course was uneventful. Even though this report is limited to a single case, only aggressive and prompt surgical intervention could relieve the intractable conditions in such a patient with extremely high risk.

An aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA) is a relatively rare congenital anomaly of arch branches, occurring in 0.5-2.0% of the population. Stanford type A acute aortic dissection involving an ARSA is rare, and is associated with difficult surgical planning in an emergency situation. We report a case of Stanford type A acute aortic dissection originating from an ARSA in a 50-year-old man. He was referred to our hospital with a chief complaint of chest and back pain. Contrast enhanced CT scan revealed type A aortic dissection involving an ARSA, with the entry located near the ARSA. Given the possible difficulty of performing distal anastomosis over the ARSA and ARSA reconstruction, total arch replacement was performed using the open stent-grafting technique. The postoperative course was uneventful, and a CT scan revealed a thrombosed false lumen and ARSA. The false lumen of the aorta next to the stent graft eventually disappeared at 1 year postoperatively. The open stent-grafting technique might be an effective alternative in the management of Stanford type A acute aortic dissection with ARSA.