An 80-year-old man complained of bilateral leg edema. Doppler echocardiography showed a mobile tumor (33mm) in the right atrium and severe tricuspid regurgitation with an atrial fibrillation. An operation was performed urgently. Excision of the tumor including the right atrial wall and tricuspid annuloplasty were done. Histologic study demonstrated lipoma and no malignancy. Bilateral leg edema disappeared, and the sinus rhythm was restored after the operation.

A 65-year-old woman presented to a local hospital with chest, back and right leg pain. She was transferred to our hospital because her abdominal pain gradually increased. CT scan demonstrated an acute type A aortic dissection from the proximal ascending aorta to the right common iliac artery, with a 48 mm diameter in the ascending aorta. The proximal superior mesenteric artery (SMA) was completely occluded by the thrombosed false lumen. Echocardiography showed minor aortic regurgitation, and no pericardial effusion. Her hemodynamics were stable, but abdominal pain persisted. Emergency laparotomy, performed because of mesenteric infarction with intestinal necrosis, provided no evidence of any intestinal necrosis. She underwent left external iliac artery to distal SMA bypass with a saphenous vein graft, because the intestine looked pale. Then the total arch replacement was performed two days later. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful, and her abdominal symptom completely disappeared.

Noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium (NCLV) is a rare congenital cardiomyopathy resulting from an arrest in normal endomyocardial embryogenesis. The prognosis of NCLV is poor, including progress on to heart failure. However, some cases of NCLV in adults have been recently reported. To the best of our knowledge, there are only 3 cases of cardiac operations reported in patients with NCLV in adults. We describ a 54-year-old man with NCLV and severe coronary artery disease. Echocardiography demonstrated NCLV and low LVEF (25%). Coronary angiography (CAG) showed triple vessel disease with total occlusion of vessels #1 and #6. Tl-cintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated viability from the base to the middle of the anterior wall. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was done after controll of the heart failure. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged 7 days after operation. LVEF improved to 52% after surgery. Careful observation of cardiac function is vital because of the possibility of progression to heart failure.

We report a rare case of type A acute aortic dissection with paraplegia which was cured immediately after an emergency operation. A 79-year-old woman was transferred to our institution with sudden back pain and paraplegia. Computed tomographic scans revealed a cardiac tamponade with an acute type A aortic dissection. She went into shock soon after arrival, and about 4 hours from onset we performed an emergency replacement of the ascending aorta. Three hours after the operation, her neurological deficit gradually resolved and could walk by postoperative day 3. This case suggests that early restoration of the blood flow to the spinal cord is mandatory to relieve paraplegia caused by type A aortic dissection.

We report a rare case of 16-year-old boy who was given a diagnosis vasculo-Behçet disease after removing a right atrial thrombus. He was admitted to our hospital with abdominal pain and fever. He was underwent appendectomy for suspected appendicitis, but the appendix was normal. Additional image examinations revealed a mobile right atrial mass and inferior vena cava thrombosis, and the patient was sent to reoperation urgently to prevent pulmonary embolism. Surgery revealed the mass to be a thrombus. Vasculo-Behçet disease was diagnosed based on the patient's history and examination data. He was discharged on the 17th postoperative day. Cardiac mass excision should be immediately considered in such cases, and the differential diagnosis of Behçet disease was important for this case.

We developed a percutaneous left ventricular assist system (PLVAS) using a centrifugal pump. PLVAS is the transseptal left atrial-femoral artery bypass to unload the left ventricle using a centrifugal pump. This PLVAS can be implanted through the inguinal vessels under fluoroscopy and also in 2 cases additional transesophageal echocardiogram guiding was performed. This PLVAS was applied to 6 patients with profound heart failure and refractory cardiogenic shock. The implantation of PLVAS required 30-60 minutes. The PLVAS assist flow was maintained at 3.0-4.0l/min. One patient with acute myocardial infarction survived and has been doing well for more than 1 year. The complications directly related to this procedure were minimal. PLVAS appears to be useful for patients with severe heart failure and may be useful as a short-time support or bridge to other more aggressive forms of life support.

A 75-year-old woman underwent endovascular stent-grafting for a descending thoracic aortic aneurysm, followed by video-assisted thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy for concomitant lung cancer in a later procedure. Two custom-made endovascular spiral Z stents covered with woven Dacron (DuPont Co., Wilmington, DE, USA) were delivered via the femoral artery under local anesthesia using pull-through technique. Intraoperative angiograms showed successful exclusion of the aneurysm without any endoleakage. Conventional surgical treatments for both diseases in this patient would have required bilateral thoracotomy either in a simultaneous or staged fashion and entail risks of postoperative pulmonary dysfunction and progression of the cancer. Endovascular stent-grafting offered potential superior operative results and quality of postoperative life in this patient with concomitant descending thoracic aortic aneurysm and cancer of the right lung.

Between 1996 to 2000, 12 patients with arteriosclerotic thoracic aortic aneurysm underwent surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass using the right axillary artery as an arterial inflow. All patients received total arch replacement with selective cerebral perfusion and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. One patient with occlusion of the left carotid artery died of postoperative stroke. There were no postoperative complications or deaths related to axillary artery perfusion except for cerebrovascular accidents. Perfusion through the axillary artery, providing antegrade aortic flow, is a safe and effective procedure to avoid stroke owing to retrograde arterial perfusion. We believe that the axillary artery could be an alternative to conventional femoral artery cannulation in the setting of aortic arch operations.