A 55-year-old man was referred to our hospital for hemolytic anemia 21 months after an ascending aortic replacement for acute type A aortic dissection. The enhanced CT revealed an aortic pseudoaneurysm formation at the proximal anastomosis. The cause of hemolysis was verified to be the pressure by an aortic pseudoaneurysm formation at the vascular graft stenosis. At the reoperation, the previous vascular graft was found to have partially detached from the aortic stump over the non-coronary cusp. Ascending aortic replacement was performed with a tailoried vascular graft in a scallop shape, corresponding to the non-coronary cusp. The postoperative course was uneventful and hemolysis diminished soon after the operation.

A 65-year-old man was referred to our hospital for surgical treatment of left ventricular aneurysm (LVA) with mural thrombus. Systemic lupus erythematosus had been diagnosed when he was 57 and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) had been diagnosed at age 61. Steroid and anticoagulant therapy with warfarin has been continuously performed. He suffered acute myocardial infarction at the age of 64, and percutaneous coronary intervention was performed to the diagonal branch. Seven months later, coronary angiography showed occlusion of the diagonal branch and left ventriculography showed a large LVA. Left ventricular reconstruction was performed and his postoperative course was uneventful. Cardiac surgery for the patients with APS was reported to have high morbidity and mortality. Perioperative anticoagulant management was very important for such patients.

In this report, we present our initial experience of endoscopic saphenous vein harvesting (ESVH) using the Vasoview System. ESVH was performed in 72 patients between May 2006 and October 2007. The mean patient age was 73±6.7 years, and 54 (75%) were men. The success rate of ESVH was 98.6% (71/72). The mean harvest time was 36±11 min. The mean number of side branches requiring repair was 1.19±1.21. Comparing the first 5 cases with the last 5 cases, the time for harvesting time and the number of repaired branches improved significantly. Wound complications occurred in 2 patients (2.7%) postoperatively. The intraoperative mean graft flow was 25±13 ml/min. The early patency was 87% (47/54) as evaluated by postoperative angiography or CT. The intraoperative graft flow and early patency were satisfactory. ESVH is easy to adopt and has excellent cosmetic advantages.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the inflammatory responses in patients who received 1 of 2 different types of woven Dacron grafts. Abdominal aortic surgery was performed in 154 patients between 2002 and 2006, and 102 patients were enrolled in this study. Sealed woven Dacron grafts (INTERGARD^TM woven graft, Group I) were implanted in 77 patients and non-sealed woven Dacron grafts (UBE woven graft, Group N) were implanted in 25 patients. All patients received either a bifurcated graft or straight graft replacement. Body temperature (BT), white blood cell counts (WBC), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were measured preoperatively and on postoperative days 1, 3, 5, 7 and 14, and were compared between the 2 groups. There were no differences in the patient's mean ages, 73±9 and 71±7 years, or operation time, 213±57 and 210±63 min, between Groups I and N, respectively. Postoperative changes in BT and WBC were similar in both groups. CRP levels were higher in Group N than Group I on postoperative days 5 and 7, but these differences were clinically insignificant. Prolonged inflammatory response which lasted longer than 2 weeks occurred in 2 patients in Group I and in 1 patient in Group N. All patients eventually returned to baseline conditions without special treatments. Thus the postoperative inflammatory responses to coated and non-coated woven Dacron grafts were similar in abdominal aortic surgery.

An isolated huge unruptured aneurysm of the right coronary sinus of Valsalva was detected incidentally in a 47-year-old man. Echocardiography and aortograms revealed severe aortic insufficiency with moderate stenosis, and mild dilatation of the lower ascending aorta without annulo-aortic ectasia. At operation, a sclerotic bicuspid aortic valve was confirmed. These abnormal findings necessitated a reconstruction of the aortic root with a valved conduit and reimplantation of the coronary arteries (Bentall operation with the Carrel patch technique). Pathologic examination of the resected aortic wall showed diffuse sclerotic change and partial medial degeneration.

Preoperative blood donation is well known as one approach to reducing complications caused by homologous blood transfusion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether preoperative blood donation prior to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) reduces homologous blood transfusion. The subjects were selected from 151 consecutive patients who underwent CABG between October 1996 and October 1998. Of the 151 patients, 76 made preoperative blood donations (group A). Results in this group were compared with those obtained in the control group consisting of the subjects who received CABG without preoperative blood donation (group B, n=75). Both groups were matched for age, sex, preoperative hematocrit, cardiopulmonary bypass time, blood transfusion index (BTI; body weight×preoperative hematocrit). There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of age and mean bypass duration. Homologous blood requirements were significantly lower in group A (78.9%) compared to group B (61.0%). BTI in group A (2, 224±447) however, was higher than that in group B (2, 129±515). In our study, preoperative blood donation was very effective to reduce homologous blood transfusion in coronary artery bypass grafting.

We report a rare case of a large thrombus in the ascending aorta with acute arterial occlusive disease. A 61-year-old man was transferred to our hospital with sudden pain and cyanosis. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography detected left ulnar arterial occlusion and a large mass in the ascending aorta, so we performed surgery to remove the large thrombus under cardiopulmonary bypass. Histologically, the mass was a fibrin thrombus. In addition, thickened endothelial lining and slight atheromatous degeneration was detected in the resected aortic wall. The patient was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 22.

　In this study, we report a new network system to facilitate functional cooperation between medical and long-term care providers in the progressively aging society of Japan.Currently, medical and long-term care resources are not sufficient to meet the needs of the entire population and this presents a very serious problem. Sado City, on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, has a remarkable aging society, with elders accounting for 36.8% of the population. This is because both the patients and medical staff are aging. To conserve the limited medical resources of the island, a new system for inter-regional medical cooperation was initiated in April 2013. In this network system, the patient’s diagnosis, prescription, treatment, examination, and imaging results can be shared with all medical institutions that are part of the system. Every participating medical institution can either opt to introduce the electronic medical records system or use an alternative recording system, because the data for this inter-regional medical cooperation is extracted from medical treatment fees data. Nursing facilities can also access the data. Nursing care staff have information on their patient’s activities of daily living, routine vital signs, and other important data. In December 2013, a new initiative was started where nursing staff can not only receive their patients’ data, but also send data such as those mentioned above. To achieve functional cooperation between medical and long-term care providers, it is important to have access to all data and to communicate openly. The established system easily and effectively facilitates communication among staff and participating institutions.

Recently, a long-term health concern has been identified in young Japanese women. These women have a high percentage of body fat despite a normal shape index indicator such as BMI. This condition is called marked obesity, and shows relative low lean body mass. Using an analogous determination, we investigated low percentage of muscle quantity (LM) in the extremities of young Japanese women (n=156) . The cross-sectional areas of muscle, subcutaneous fat, and bone were measured in the upper arm and thigh using ultrasonography. Extremity shape index (CSA_t/L) was defined as the total extremity cross-sectional area (CSA_t) divided by the length of the limb (L), Percent muscle in each extremity (% MA) was calculated from the ratio of muscle CSA to whole limb CSA. LM was defined as the percentage of muscle in the upper arm or thigh less than 1 SD below average and the limb shape index less than 1 SD above average. Nine of 91 subjects displayed LM for the upper arm. A similar proportion of subjects showed LM for the thigh (15/156) . The muscle mass and strength in the upper arm or thigh were compared between the subjects with LM and non-LM subjects with a similar shape index of extremity. There was a tendency towards lower muscle mass and muscle strength in the subjects with LM. From the same comparison, the subjects with LM showed a greater load on extremity muscles to sustain the body weight (i.e., body weight per unit of upper arm or thigh muscle CSA) . To mitigate the deleterious health consequences of low percent muscle quantity it is recommended that young Japanese women who display such a condition should participate in a resistance-training program.