There are few reports of cone reconstruction for neonatal Epstein's anomaly. We report 14-day-old girl with symptomatic Ebstein's anomaly with prenatal diagnosis prenatally and who was born by caesarean section. Continuous infusion of prostaglandin was started immediately and she was transferred to our institution. The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) was 74% on chest roentgenograph. The echocardiograph showed severe tricuspid valve regurgitation (TR) and functional pulmonary atresia. Despite aggressive medical therapy, congestive heart failure had advanced and early surgical intervention was required. The anterior leaflet was severely plastered to free the wall, like the Carpentier type C. After cone reconstruction, the intraoperative echocardiography showed mild to moderate TR, antegrade flow to the pulmonary arteries and good function of both ventricles. The patient was extubated on the 6th postoperative day and stayed in the intensive care unit for another 2 days. The CTR was 58%, and the echocardiography showed a well-functioning RV with mild to moderate TR and a right to left transatrial shunt flow with an arterial saturation level of over 90%. Cone reconstruction might even be effective in such border line cases of biventricular repair with dysplastic anterior leaflet of tricuspid valve.

Aortic dissection is a rare but potentially fatal complication of cardiac surgery. We report 3 cases of acute aortic dissection complicating open heart surgery. The incidence of complications was 0.18% of cardiac operation during 10 years at our institute (3/1, 647). The dissection is most frequently observed to originate in the ascending aorta, and can occur during operation. In our series, however, two of the three had their dissection entry in the descending aorta and another in the left subclavian artery. Their dissection mainly extended to the distal site of the aorta. Two of the cases were found by postoperative examinations (CT, US) and had had no symptoms or complications, and they were treated conservatively with antihypertensive therapy. One case died due to intrathoracic bleeding and a cerebrovascular event just after the onset of the complication on the 10 postoperative-day. We have to pay attention to this as one of the possible complications after open heart surgery, and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography or postoperative examinations such as CT were useful for detecting them. We should also take care of hypertension after cardiac surgery in cases in which this is a potential factor such as Marfan's syndrome.

Persistent massive air leak after pediatric cardiac surgery is a rare and possibly life-threatening complication which is difficult to treat. We report a 3-month-old boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome that underwent Glenn take-down, suffered from pulmonary hemorrhage during surgery and needed mechanical ventilation with high airway pressure that caused bilateral pneumothorax. After pulmonary hemorrhage improved, pneumothorax with persistent air leaks did not resolve under prolonged chest tubes. This patient underwent an autologous “blood patch” pleurodesis on postoperative day 32. The procedure was repeated a second time 48 h after the application of the first blood patch. After these procedures, air leaks dramatically ceased. The patient was successfully weaned from the ventilator on postoperative day 70. Pleurodesis with an autologous blood patch is a safe and an effective technique for the treatment of persistent air leaks, even for a 3-month-old boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Recently, there have been some reports that cone reconstruction can be performed in the repair of Ebstein's anomaly with acceptable result on a child. On an adult with Ebstein's anomaly, optimal surgical indication and choice of the operative procedure are controversial. A man in his seventies was diagnosed with Ebstein's anomaly incidentally during preoperative examination of severe aortic regurgitation. We performed aortic valve replacement and cone reconstruction, because his tricuspid regurgitation was moderate. There was no severe complication and he was discharged. No sign of recurrence have been observed after 4 months follow up. We present a case in which cone reconstruction and aortic valve replacement were successfully performed on an adult patient diagnosed with Ebstein's anomaly and severe aortic regurgitation.