Objective:To confirm the safety and feasibility of totally thoracoscopic repair with leaflet folding, multiple artificial chordae implantation and ring annuloplasty for mitral regurgitation(MR) in Barlow disease.Methods:From June 2018 to December 2019, 10 consecutive Barlow’s disease patients underwent totally thoracoscopic repair with leaflet folding, multiple artificial chordae implantation and ring annuloplasty. The safety and feasibility of this technique was evaluated by its early clinical outcomes.Results:8 males and 2 females. The mean age was(33.5±11.0) years.There was no operative death and related complications. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) time was(142±26)(112-194)min, and the aortic clamping time was(96±18)(78-128) min. The average number of artificial chordae implantation was(3.4±0.7)(2-4) pairs/case. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography(TEE) showed the mean mitral valve coaptation length and transvalvular pressure gradient was(1.2±0.2)(0.8-1.5) cm and(1.2±0.4) mmHg(1 mmHg=0.133 kPa), respectively, without MR or systolic anterior motion(SAM). During a follow-up of 1-18 months, there were 7 cases with no MR and 3 with trace MR, with a mean transvalvular pressure gradient of( 1.5±0.6 )mmHg.Conclusion:Totally thoracoscopic repair with leaflet folding, multiple artificial chordae implantation and ring annuloplasty was a safe and effective procedure with satisfied early clinical outcomes for MR in Barlow’s disease. However, further randomized and long-term follow-up studies were warranted to determine its clinical effects.

Objective To summarize the experience with resurgery for recurrent valvular heart diseases.Methods From June 2004 to June 2015, 28 patients (15 males and 13 females) with ages ranging from 44 to 67 years (55.6±6.5 years) with recurrent heart valve disease underwent resurgery. The reasons for resurgery included perivalvular leakage (7 cases), bioprosthetic valve decline (6 cases in mitral valve and 3 in tricuspid valve), mechanical prostheses dysfunction (2cases), infective endocarditis after valve replacement (2 cases), restenosis of repaired native valve (1 case), and severe tricuspid insufficiency after left-side valve surgery (7 cases). Resurgery included mitral valve replacement in 18 patients and tricuspid valve replacement in 10. All the patients underwent third or fourth or even fifth cardiac surgery for valve replacement.Results There were 2 hospital deaths with a mortality of 7.1% (2/28). The main causes of early-stage deaths were low cardiac output syndrome. The main postoperative complications were respiratory failure in 3, low cardiac output syndrome in 2, reexploration for bleeding in 2 and serious infectious shock in 1. All the patients were found with the great improvement in heart function and the re-implanted prostheses worked well during follow-up.Conclusions Although resurgery for recurrent heart valve disease poses a continuing challenge to cardiac surgeon, it could be performed with the satisfactory results. The keys to a successful cardiac resurgery include appropriate operational timing, refined surgical technique and reasonable perioperative managements.

Objective: To examine minimally invasive tricuspid valve operations applied in tricuspid valve insufficiency patients with previous left-sided valve surgery. Methods: Between September 2017 and June 2019, thirty-six consecutive patients received minimally invasive totally thoracoscopic tricuspid surgery through right thoracotomy at Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Fisrt Medical Center, People′s Liberation Army General Hospital. There were 13 males and 23 females, aging (56±11) years (range: 43 to 79 years). All the patients had isolated significant tricuspid regurgitation after previous left-sided cardiac surgeries. A right anterolateral thoracotomy incision about 4 cm was made from the fourth intercostal space as main operating port. The arterial cannula was placed in femoral artery. The venous cannula was placed in femoral vein using Seldingger technique. Tricuspid valve operation was performed on beating heart by assist of vena vacuum. Results: Tricuspid valve repair was performed in 7 patients. Tricuspid valve replacement with bioprosthesis was performed in 29 patients. The operation time was (2.9±0.3) hours (range:2.5 to 3.6 hours). There was no conversion to sternotomy during operation. There was no severe complications during operation period. There were no complications related to this cannulation technique. The time of cardiopulmonary bypass establishment was (22±5) minutes (range: 12 to 24 minutes) and pump time was (82±16) minutes (range: 62 to 93 minutes). The length of hospital stay was (9±3) days after operation (range: 5 to 13 days). There was no early death in hospital. All patients were followed up for 3 to 22 months. No patient died. Conclusions One single port-based minimally invasive approach seems to be safe, feasible, and reproducible in case of redo tricuspid valve operations. Only cannulation of inferior vena cava significantly simplified the complexity of isolated redo tricuspid surgery.

Objective To investigate the effect of Danhuangsan on high glucose-induced vascular endothelial cell injury based on PINK 1/Parkin signaling pathway,and to explore its specific mechanism.Methods Human um-bilical vein endothelial cells were cultured in vitro and randomly divided into control group,growth factor group,Danhuangsan group,high glucose group,high glucose+growth factor group,high glucose+Danhuangsan group,with 3 cases in each group,treated for 48 hours.Cell scratch test was used to detect cell migration rate,and Transwell test was used to detect cell invasion rate.Immunofluorescence was used to detect the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2,Beclin-1 and pro-apoptotic protein Bax.Western blot was used to detect the protein expression levels of PINK 1,Parkin and LC 3-Ⅱ.Results Cell scratch test and Transwell test showed that under normal environment and high glucose treatment,Danhuangsan could reduce the cell migration and invasion rate(P＜0.05).Immunofluorescence assay showed that under normal environment and high glucose treatment,Danhuang-san up-regulated the expression levels of Bcl-2 and Beclin-1 protein in cells(P＜0.05).Western blot results showed that under normal environment and high glucose treatment,Danhuangsan increased the protein expression levels of PINK 1,Parkin and LC 3-Ⅱ in cells and down-regulated the expression levels of Bax protein(P＜0.05),and the effects of Danhuang powder were significantly better than those of blank serum and growth factor(P＜0.05).Conclusion Danhuangsan can alleviate high glucose-induced endothelial cell injury by activating PINK 1/Parkin pathway,and the mechanism may be related to promoting mitophagy and enhancing the repair of damage.

Objective:Reported our experience of 100 consecutive cases of thoracoscopic mitral valvuloplasty in the early period.Methods:Between September 2017 and December 2019, 100 consecutive cases of thoracoscopic mitral valvuloplasty had been completed in our institution. There were 56 males and 44 females. The mean age was(49.2±14.7) years old, ranging from 15 to 75 years old.The safety and feasibility of this technique was evaluated by its early clinical outcomes.Results:Mitral valve(MV) repair techniques included leaflet folding in 5 cases, cleft suture in 10, commissuroplasty in 15, edge to edge in 1, artificial chordae implantation in 76 cases with mean of(2.5±1.6)(1-4) pairs, and prosthetic annuloplasty in all cases. Intraoperative transoesophageal echocardiography(TEE) revealed no mitral regurgitation(MR) in 95 cases and a mild in 2 cases with all coaptation length more than 5 mm. The rest 3 cases with moderate or more MR were successfully reconstructed after being blocked again. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) time was(164.4±51.0 )min and aortic clamping time was(119.7 ± 39.1) min, and the latest 10 cases were(140.2±45.3 )min and(96.3±25.4) min, the difference was statistically significant( P<0.05). There was one operative death for avulsion of left atrial suture after operation and 2 intraoperative re-exploration for bleeding. Severe MR was observed in 2 patients 3 months after operation, and mitral valve replacement(MVR) was performed through median sternotomy. Conclusion:Totally thoracoscopic mitral valvuloplasty is technically feasible, safe, effective and reproducible in clinical practice after crossing the learning curve. The short-term effect is satisfactory, however, further randomized and long-term follow-up studies are warranted to determine its clinical effects.

The precise localization of pulmonary nodules has become an important technical key point in the treatment of pulmonary nodules by thoracoscopic surgery, which is a guarantee for safe margin and avoiding removal of too much normal lung parenchyma. With the development of medical technology and equipment, the methods of locating pulmonary nodules are also becoming less trauma and convenience. There are currently a number of methods applied to the preoperative or intraoperative localization of pulmonary nodules, including preoperative percutaneous puncture localization, preoperative transbronchial localization, intraoperative palpation localization, intraoperative ultrasound localization, and localization according to anatomy. The most appropriate localization method should be selected according to the location of the nodule, available equipment, and surgeon鈥檚 experience. According to the published literatures, we have sorted out a variety of different theories and methods of localization of pulmonary nodules in this article, summarizing their advantages and disadvantages for references.