An 80-year-old woman with dextrocardia and situs inversus was admitted with chest pain. She successfully underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. The free left internal mammary artery (IMA) was anastomosed to the posterior lateral branch and the in-situ right IMA to the left anterior descending artery (LAD). The reconstruction of the LAD was performed with endarterectomy due to a diffusely diseased LAD with severe calcification. Except for the mirror-image anatomy, the surgical technique was similar to that used for patients with situs solitus.

A brachiocepharic artery aneurysm is relatively rare in comparison with other peripheral artery aneurysms. A 62-year-old woman who had had a sudden chest pain 1 year previously was referred to our hospital because of a right upper mediastinal mass on a chest roentgenogram. Computed tomography demonstrated the dissection and dilatation of the innominate artery. The dissection extended to the right carotid artery and right subclavian artery. Furthermore, the ascending aorta was dilated. We performed reconstruction of the innominate artery with a Y-shaped composite graft and replacement of the ascending aorta and total aortic arch. Her postoperative course was uneventful with no neurological event. We describe our surgical strategy in this report with a review of the literature because operative methods and plans are various according to the shape and extent of the aneurysm of the brachiocepharic artery.

A 47-year-old man was referred to our hospital with acute congestive heart failure. Echocardiography and computed tomography revealed a left atrial tumor obstructing blood flow. An emergency operation was performed to relieve the obstruction. The tumor deeply invaded the posterior wall of the left atrium. We did not completely resect the tumor. The patient was discharged 10 days after surgery without complications. The tumor was diagnosed as pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma histopathologically. Adjuvant chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, adriamycin and dacarbazine) was started 23 days after surgery. Although partial remission was achieved, the tumor started to grow after chemotherapy was discontinued because of severe adverse effects. The patient died 11 months after surgery. In this patient, even though complete resection was not done, emergency palliative surgery was effective to treat acute heart failure and to establish a pathologic diagnosis of the tumor. We report this rare case and discuss the therapeutic strategy for primary cardiac sarcomas.

An 80-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of distal aortic arch aneurysm. A preoperative chest CT demonstrated a 54 mm in diameter distal aortic arch and coronary angiography revealed stenosis of LAD and the diagonal branch. We planned a thoracic endovascular repair after total arch replacement with a coronary artery bypass graft. A ZTEG-2P-30-200-JP was deployed at the proximal side of the elephant trunk, and a ZTEG-2P-34-152-JP was deployed. About 10 months later, a chest CT demonstrated a 90 mm in diameter distal native aortic arch, and anemia had increased to Hb 7.7 g/dl. A CT and angiography revealed a type II endoleak and so we tried to close the endoleak through a left thoracotomy approach. Twenty-eight months after the TEVAR, the patient had esophageal perforation and stent graft infection. At first, we resected the esophagus and reconstructed it with a gastric tube. Secondly, a descending thoracic aorta replacement was performed. The patient suffered from a cerebral infarction. However, infection was controlled successfully and he was transferred to another hospital for rehabilitation 69 days after the descending aorta replacement.

In this study, we report early and mid-term outcomes of endoscopic saphenous vein (SV) harvesting (EVH) for coronary artery bypass grafting. EVH is expected to have superior cosmetic results and fewer wound complications than conventional open techniques. EVH was performed in 262 patients from April 2008 to December 2010. From September 2010, we have administered heparin before EVH to prevent intraluminal SV clot formation. The mean age of the patients was 70±7.3 years, and 178 (67.9%) patients were men. The success rate of EVH was 97.3%. Hospital mortality was 1.2%. Postoperative wound complications occurred in only 7 (2.8%) patients. The early and mid-term patency was 95.8% (276/288) and 74.2% (187/252), respectively, as evaluated by postoperative angiography or computed tomography. Comparing the mid-term patency rate between the groups with or without systemic heparinization before EVH, statistical significance was not observed, but the mid-term patency was good in the group with systemic heparinization (82.5% vs. 73.6%, p=0.16). Actuarial 1-year and 3-year survival were 93.9% and 79%. Actuarial 1-year and 3-year major adverse cardiac event-free rates were 92.2% and 77.5%. In 10 patients who had SV graft occlusion during the observation period, percutaneous coronary intervention was required for the native coronary artery. EVH has great cosmetic advantages and has a good early patency. However, the mid-term patency is not satisfactory. Thus, systemic heparinization before EVH, improvement of the device and further clinical experience and techniques are required to improve the mid-term and late patency.

We experienced a hybrid repair for Kommerell diverticulum and right aortic arch. A 62-year-old man with dyspnea and dysphagia was referred to our hospital. He underwent atrium septum defect closure when he was 15 years old and was found to have ventricular septal defect and severe aortic regurgitation at the referring hospital. Preoperative computed tomography incidentally showed right aortic arch and Kommerell diverticulum with aberrant left subclavian artery. First, we performed ventricular septal defect closure and aortic valve replacement. Three months later, we performed one-stage hybrid repair of Kommerell diverticulum that included left common carotid-subclavian artery bypass, left subclavian artery plug occlusion and descending aortic replacement via a right thoracotomy. This hybrid strategy did not require in-situ reconstruction of the aberrant subclavian artery and minimized the risk of bleeding, injuries of esophagus and recurrent laryngeal nerve. The postoperative course was uneventful. This hybrid repair is a safe and effective procedure for Kommerell diverticulum with aberrant subclavian artery.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the background and outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with low-risk scores. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 69 patients with risk scores of<4% undergoing TAVR in a single institution from January 2016 through June 2021. Results: The mean age of the patients was 81±4.5 years, and 52% of them were women. The reasons for TAVR selection included very old age (≥85 years; 20%); frailty (51%); ascending aortic calcification (4.3%); history of mediastinal radiation therapy (2.8%); and respiratory diseases (10%). Six patients required early discharge and recovery for another surgery following treatment of aortic stenosis or family members' care, and 2 patients had an estimated life expectancy of 1-5 years. Also, three patients strongly desired TAVR despite having none of the objective factors that favor TAVR. The median lengths of stay in the ICU and after TAVR were 1 day (1-11 days) and 5 days (3-40 days). There was neither operative mortality nor a need for aortic valve reintervention. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that the one-year survival rate was 99%, and two-year and three-year survival rates were 97% each. The causes of late death were sepsis, unknown factor, and intracranial hemorrhage. Discussion: The short-term and medium-term outcomes of TAVR with low-risk score patients were favorable although the patient background was poor due to high-risk factors for surgery that were excluded from the risk scores.