The clinical assessment of the risk of rupture and dissection of thoracic aortic aneurysm(TAA) is mainly dependent on the measurement of the maximum diameter and growth rate of the aneurysm itself. The use of aortic size alone may ignore the role of vascular heterogeneity in assessing the risk of catastrophic complications. Biomechanics could help predict the risk of TAA in a more sophisticated way. In this paper, we reviewed the latest advances in biomechanical assessment of risk characteristics of TAA.

BACKGROUND: A retrospective review of the surgical treatment of refractory chest tumors involving the heart or large vessels with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). METHODS: To summarize 11 cases of chest tumor patients who had undergone cardiopulmonary bypass surgery from January 2008 to May 2017 in our hospital, and analyze the general condition, clinical characteristics, treatment methods, postoperative hospitalization time, complications and follow-up results of all patients. RESULTS: All 11 patients were operated with cardiopulmonary bypass. Total resection of tumors in 8 cases and most of the excision in 3 cases. 1 case of left atrial metastatic leiomyosarcoma were excised in the left atrium, and then the right lung resection was performed. 1 case of left lung central lung cancer resection through the median sternum incision. 2 cases underwent pulmonary artery repair at the same time, 3 cases underwent partial pericardiectomy and 3 cases underwent pulmonary wedge resection at the same time. All the patients were effectively relieved after the operation. No death rate in hospital and 30 days after operation. 3 cases of postoperative pulmonary infection were recovered after the treatment of antibiotics. 1 case of lymphoma relapsed 6 months after surgery and died one year later. 1 case of pericardial fibrosarcoma had local recurrence and extensive metastasis at 13 months after operation, and died after 15 months. 1 case of pulmonary leiomyosarcoma were found to have local recurrence 15 months after the operation and were relieved after chemotherapy. The remaining 8 patients survived, and no obvious recurrence and distant metastasis were found in the computed tomography (CT) examination. CONCLUSIONS The CPB assisted surgical treatment can be performed for patient of refractory chest tumors involving the heart or large vessels. It can improve the surgical resection rate of refractory chest tumors, effectively alleviate the effects on respiratory and circulatory functions, and significantly prolong the survival period of these patients.
Adult ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass ; adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; mortality ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; etiology ; Pulmonary Artery ; diagnostic imaging ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: Patients who underwent lobectomy resection are prone to hypoxemia, and the vast majority present with type I respiratory failure. Thus, improvement of hypoxemia is one of the most important factors to facilitate postoperative recovery of patients. In this study, the superiority-inferiority of different oxygen inhalation methods were compared with high-flow nasal oxygen therapy (HFNO), noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) and nasal oxygen breath (NOB) in patients with hypoxemia after single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy, and the clinical efficacy of HFNO in these patients was further investigated. METHODS: A total of 180 patients from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University in China with hypoxemia who accepting single-port VATS lobectomy from June 2021 to March 2022 were randomly divided into three groups (n=60), which were treated with HFNO, NIMV and NOB, respectively. The results of arterial blood gas analysis, patient's comfort score and incidence of complications were observed before, 1 h, 6 h-12 h and after use. Statistical analyses were conducted using statistical program for social sciences 25.0 (SPSS 25.0), and P<0.05 was considered as statistical significance. RESULTS: For patients with hypoxemia after accepting single-port VATS lobectomy, HFNO was no less effective than NIMV (P=0.333), and both of whom could fast increase patients' partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspiration O₂ (PaO₂/FiO₂) compared to NOB (P<0.001). Besides, HFNO shows a great advantage in comfort degree and stay length (P<0.001, P=0.004), and incidence of complications were slightly lower than other groups (P=0.232). But it is worthy to note that HFNO is still slightly less effective than NIMV in patients with postoperative hypoxemia accompanied by elevated partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO₂). CONCLUSIONS For patients with hypoxemia who accepting single-port VATS lobectomy, HFNO can be used as the first choice. However, for patients with postoperative hypoxemia accompanied by elevated PaCO₂, NIMV is still recommended to improve oxygenation.
Carbon Dioxide ; Humans ; Hypoxia/surgery* ; Lung Neoplasms/surgery* ; Oxygen ; Pneumonectomy/methods* ; Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted/methods*

Objective    To summarize the clinical experience of the uniportal thoracoscopic anatomical sub-segmentectomy of the basal segment. Methods    The clinical data of 34 patients who underwent uniportal thoracoscopic anatomical sub-segmentectomy of the basal segment in our department between April 2018 and April 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 19 males and 15 females with a median age of 56.5 (28.0-76.0) years, a 3-4 cm incision was made in the 5th intercostal area at the front axillary line, and anatomical sub-segmentectomy of the basal segment was performed. Results     The surgery was successfully performed in all patients, and there was no patient with additional chest incision or transfer to thoracotomy. The median operation time was 165.0 (125.0-220.0) min, intraoperative blood loss was 120.0 (70.0-290.0) mL, thoracic drainage time was 3.5 (2.0-24.0) d, and hospitalization time was 6.0 (3.0-26.0) d. There was no death during the hospitalization. Postoperative complications included 4 patients of atrial fibrillation, 2 patients of blood sputum, 3 patients of persistent air leakage, and they were recovered after conservative treatment. One patient developed pneumothorax after discharge, 1 patient developed pleural effusion, and both of them recovered after drainage. Postoperative pathology showed microinvasive adenocarcinoma in 22 patients, adenocarcinoma in situ in 7 patients, benign tumors in 5 patients. The lymph nodes were negative in all patients. Conclusion     The uniportal thoracoscopic anatomical sub-segmentectomy of the basal segment is safe and feasible, and can be popularized and applied in clinic.

Objective To investigate the significance of spread through air spaces (STAS) in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing either sublobar resection or lobectomy by pooling evidence available, and to assess the accuracy of frozen sections in determining types of resection among patients with suspected presence of STAS. Methods Studies were identified by searching databases including PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library from inception to July 2022. Two researchers independently searched, screened, evaluated literature, and extracted data. Statistical analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 and STATA 15.0. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of the study. Results A total of 26 studies involving 23 surgical related studies (12 266 patients) were included, among which, 11 compared the outcomes of lobectomy with sublobar resection in the STAS-positive patients. NOS score≥6 points. Meta-analysis indicated that presence of STAS shortened patients' survival in both lobectomy group and sublobar resection group (RFS: HR=2.27, 95%CI 1.96-2.63, P＜0.01; OS: HR=2.08, 95%CI 1.74-2.49, P＜0.01). Moreover, lobectomy brought additional survival benefits to STAS-positive patients compared with sublobar resection (RFS: HR=1.97, 95%CI 1.59-2.44, P＜0.01; OS: HR=1.91, 95%CI 1.47-2.48, P＜0.01). Four studies were included to assess the accuracy of identifying presence of STAS on intraoperative frozen sections, of which the pooled sensitivity reached 55% (95%CI 45%-64%), the pooled specificity reached 92% (95%CI 77%-97%), and the pooled area under the curve was 0.68 (95%CI 0.64-0.72) based on the data available. Conclusion This study confirms that presence of STAS is a critical risk factor for patients with early-stage NSCLC. Lobectomy should be recommended as the first choice when presence of STAS is identified on frozen sections, as lobectomy can prolong patients' survival compared with sublobar resection in STAS-positive disease. The specificity of identifying STAS on frozen sections seems to be satisfactory, which may be helpful in determining types of resection. However, more robust methods are urgently in need to make up for the limited sensitivity and accuracy of frozen sections.