Patient is a 58-year-old man who had a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm with abdominal angina due to the occlusion of celiac artery with mural thrombus in the aneurysm. He had a recurring abdominal pain for half a year, and relapsing elevation of serum transaminase levels. Graft displacement was performed, followed by reattachment of visceral vessels, celiac artery and superior mesenteric artery, using partial extracorporeal circulation. Abdominal angina due to thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm has been seldom reported. It has been said that complete revascularization is not required as surgical therapy, and single vessel revascularization is sufficient to reduce symptoms. Preoperative angiography will reveal which vessels supply dominant blood flow to visceral organs, therefore, angiographic examination should be performed essentially prior to surgery.

During a twelve-year period (1982-1993), 15 axillo-femoral bypass surgeries have been performed for aortoiliac occlusive disease. All patients were men, with an average age of 71.2 years. Axillo-bifemoral bypass was performed in 10 cases, and axillo-unifemoral bypass in 5 cases. In Additional femoro-popliteal bypass was required 3 cases. All cases had some accompanying disease, so they were considered to be high risk cases for anatomic bypass surgery. In the 12 elective cases, 2 hospital deaths (16.7%) occured due to the accompaning disease (atrial fibrillation and lung canser). At discharged leg symptoms had improved in 10 patients. In the long term postoperative phase, 4 patients died due to accompanying disease, and one was lost to follow up. Excluding these patients, the long term patency in the 5 surviving patients was 100%. In this series, we encountered a case of perigraft seroma, which is rare. The intractable perigraft seroma disappeared after the reoperation with another material graft. Axillo-femoral bypass is preferable for high risk patients with aortoiliac occlusive disease. In cases of severe respiratory dysfunction, it can be performed under epidural and local anesthesia.

Three cases of isolated iliac aneurysms were reported. The first case was a 28-year-old man who was transferred to our hospital in shock. The ruptured left iliac aneurysm was replaced with a prosthetic graft. It was assumed to be a rupture of a false aneurysm. The second case was a 60-year-old man who complained swelling of his right leg and dyspnea on exertion. Angiography revealed tht those symptoms were due to right iliac aneurysm with AV fistula. The aneurysm was replaced with a bifurcating graft and the AV fistula was closed concurrently. The third case was a 55-year-old man who had no symptoms. He had been followed up for hepatitis type C with periodical echogram. The echogram showed dilatation of his bilateral iliac arteries. On a diagnosis of bilateral iliac aneurysms, bifurcating graft replacement was performed. All of these three cases recovered successfully and were discharged. Because the greater part of the cases of isolated iliac aneurysms have few symptoms, many cases were first diagnosed through the event of its rupture. The number of cases of isolated iliac aneurysm with no symptoms will increase with advanced availability of abdominal echogram and CT scanning.

A 67-year-old man had ischemic cardiomyopathy. He had New York Heart Association class III heart failure with pleural effusion. Further examinations revealed an enlarged left ventricle with markedly reduced ejection fraction (6.2%) and 3-vessel coronary disease. He underwent single coronary bypass grafting, using the gastroepiploic artery (GEA) to RCA without cardiopulmonary bypass. He showed a remarkable improvement of cardiac function. He was discharged from our hospital (NYHA class I) on the 40th postoperative day and lives an almost normal life now. Coronary artery bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass is one of the useful surgical techniques for patients with ischemic severe left ventricular dysfunction.

A 76-year-old woman who had undergone 5 surgical procedures and chemotherapy for retro-peritoneal liposarcoma was found to have a right ventricular aneurysm by echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and right ventricular cineangiogram. We decided that it was a false aneurysm because of communication with the right ventricle through a small orifice. At operation, aneurysm was not strongly adherent, so we closed the small orifice with a purse-string suture, and covered it with part of the wall of the aneurysm. Subepicardial aneurysm of the right ventricle was diagnosed by operative and pathological findings. The postoperative course was uneventful and she was discharged on the 15th postoperative day.

A 53-year-old woman was admitted with cardiac failure due to aortic regurgitation (AR) and pseudocoarctation of the aorta associated with Takayasu's aortitis. It was revealed that her hypertension of upper extremities was based on Takayasu's aortitis at her 37-year-old age. But at that time there was no sign of inflammation, only drug therapy for hypertension had been employed. She started to complaint of dyspnea on exertion and palpitation when 47 years old, ultrasonic echocardiography and cardiac catheterization revealed that her symptoms were based on pseudocoarctation and AR. Despite of drug therapy, her symptoms progressed and reached NYHA class III. Detailed examination showed progressed AR and occurrence of mitral regurgitation (MR). Surgical treatment, ascending aorto-terminal aortic bypass, aortic valve replacement (AVR), and mitral valvuloplasty was performed at the age of 53 years old. In instituting the extracorporeal circulation, an arterial cannula was placed in the graft that anastomosed to the terminal aorta, in addition to the arterial cannula to the ascending aorta, to prevent low perfusion of the organs distal to the pseudocoarctation. The postoperative course was uneventful. Special attention should be paid to prevent low perfusion of the organs in such case with presence of pressure gradient in the aorta.

We present two cases of thoracic aortic aneurysm combined with aberrant right subclavian artery. Case 1 was a 71-year-old man, and case 2 was a 74-year-old man with an aortic arch aneurysm associated with a diverticulum of Kommerell. In both cases, we performed total aortic arch replacement through median sternotomy using cardiopulmonary bypass, systemic hypothermia and selective cerebral perfusion. We reconstructed all 4 arch branches. The aberrant right subclavian artery arose from the distal portion of the aortic arch, distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery. It crossed the midline between the esophagus and spine. To prevent compression of the trachea and esophagus by the right subclavian artery, we reconstructed it by the anterior side of the trachea. The postoperative course was uneventful.

A-23-year-old man, with intellectual disability and history of self-inflicted injuries, presented with chest pain. A 3mm “picked” wound in the left chest was observed on physical examination. Chest computed tomography revealed a needle in the pericardium. Emergency surgery was performed by median sternotomy. At first we could not find the needle because it was completely buried in the heart, but when the posterior wall of the heart was exposed, the head of the needle appeared protruding from the posterior wall. It was removed and the wound of the posterior wall was closed with direct mattress sutures without cardio-pulmonary bypass. On inspection, the needle was 34mm long.

Distal anastomosis during total arch replacement (TAR) for thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is often difficult to perform because of the limited surgical view. The most common methods available are direct anastomosis of a 4-branched graft to the distal aorta, or stepwise anastomosis with the elephant trunk procedure. However, the stepwise technique requires graft-to-graft anastomosis, which is often associated with bleeding. In the present study, we developed a new approach, which we have termed the “Branched Graft Inversion technique”, which does not require anastomosis between grafts, and facilitates anastomosis with a view equal to that in the stepwise technique. A 65-year-old man with a diagnosis of saccular-type thoracic aortic aneurysm was admitted. Cardiopulmonary bypass was established by cannulating the ascending aorta and femoral artery via a median sternotomy. We performed distal anastomosis under selective cerebral perfusion during hypothermic circulatory arrest (25°C). An inverted branched graft was inserted into the descending aorta and anastomosed using mattress and running sutures together with outer reinforcement with a Teflon felt strip. The distal end of the inverted branched graft was then extracted, and reconstruction of the neck vessels and proximal anastomosis were performed. Our newly developed Branched Graft Inversion technique was useful during TAR for TAA.

We report a case of secondary aortoenteric fistula (SAEF). A 76-year-old man who had undergone bifurcated graft replacement for an abdominal aortic aneurysm 18 years previously was admitted to our hospital on 2008. Since the patient was in hemorrhagic shock and had several comorbidities, he first underwent emergency endovascular aneurysmal repair (EVAR). The patient recovered from shock, and then the duodenal fistula was closed and a temporary tube enterostomy was made on the next day. The patient's recovery was uneventful and he was discharged 34 days after EVAR without any sign of infection. However, the patient was admitted for a recurrent SAEF 16 months after the procedure. Although emergency surgery was performed, he died due to sepsis 11 days after surgery. EVAR could be useful to control bleeding associated with SAEF ; however, it would be necessary for a long-term results to perform additional radical surgery subsequently to ensure the patients' hemodynamic recovery.