A 78-year-old woman had been undergoing medical treatment for hypertension since she delivered a son in her early twenties. Three months previously, she was admitted with heart failure. She had felt leg fatigue for a long time, and the pressure gradient between the upper and lower limbs was about 60 mmHg. On further examinations, she was found to have an atrial septal defect (ASD), tricuspid valve regurgitation, atrial fibrillation, and severe coarctation of the aorta (CoA) with well-developed collateral arteries. We performed ASD closure, tricuspid annuloplasty with a flexible ring, left atrial maze operation and extra-anatomic bypass from the ascending to the abdominal aorta through a median sternotomy and upper median laparotomy. She had no postoperative complications and the pressure gradient between the upper and lower limbs improved remarkably postoperatively. It is rare for a patient over 70 years old who for the first time was given a diagnosis of CoA and ASD with other heart disease and who underwent surgical correction. We think one stage surgery with extra-anatomic bypass from the ascending to the abdominal aorta is a safe and effective technique for patients suffering CoA with heart disease.

We report a case of massive endobronchial hemorrhage after cardiopulmonary bypass, and its successful treatment utilizing a bronchial blocker tube without circulatory support. An 85-year-old woman underwent mitral and tricuspid valves repair for mitral stenosis and regurgitation, and tricuspid regurgitation. The repairs were performed uneventfully. The patient was weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass. After protamine infusion, massive endobronchial hemorrhage occurred through the tracheal tube. On fiberoptic bronchoscopy, prompt identification and selective occlusion of the hemorrhage source was performed by a Coopdech endobronchial blocker tube (Daiken Medical Co., Ltd, Osaka, Japan). Postoperative contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed thrombogenic pseudoaneurysm of the right middle lobe pulmonary artery. We speculated that Swan-Ganz catheters induced endobronchial hemorrhage. The patient did not experience any further hemorrhage. She was discharged from our hospital on the 25th postoperative day in good condition.

The patient was a 25-year-old man, who had been stabbed with a weapon siarilar to long ice pick. Thirty minutes later, he was admitted to our emergency center by ambulance. Anchocardiogram on admission revealed moderate pericardial effusion with normal heart function. Contrast medium enhanced computed tomography revealed that the weapon had entered from the left anterolateral chest wall and reached the posterior wall of the aortic root, approximately 1 cm above the left coronary artery orifice, through the left lung. During examinations, he suddenly went into shock and emergency open pericardial drainage was performed immediately. Approximately 400 ml of blood with a clot was removed from the pericardial cavity. After this procedure, there was no continuous bleeding. Subsequently, pseudoaneurysm developed at the aortic root injury site. Twenty seven days later, aortic surgery was performed. The injury site was resected and sutured directly, employing 4-0 polypropylene sutures with felt pledgets. He was discharged 14 days after the operation without any complications.

A 64-year-old man was transferred to our hospital because of acute heart failure associated with myocardial infarction. Echocardiography revealed severe mitral regurgitation due to total rupture of the posterior papillary muscle. Following the diagnosis of papillary muscle rupture, intraaortic balloon pumping support was started, and surgery was performed without coronary angiography because of cardiogenic shock and renal dysfunction. The posterior papillary muscle was completely ruptured, and the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve was severely prolapsed. Without resecting the posterior leaflet, mitral valve replacement was successfully performed using a St. Jude Medical^® prosthetic valve. The postoperative course was uneventful except for ventricular tachyarrhythmia which occurred during the acute phase postoperatively. Postoperative coronary angiography demonstrated no significant coronary arterial stenosis. In a patient with cardiogenic shock due to papillary muscle rupture, immediate surgical intervention is recommended as soon as the diagnosis has been established by echocardiography.

We report a 25-year-old man with ventricular septal perforation due to blunt chest trauma. He was transferred by ambulance to our hospital following a traffic accident. On admission, he had no cardiac murmur. Two days later, a pansystolic murmur appeared over the left lower sternal border. Doppler echocardiogram revealed a large left-to-right shunt through a ventricular septal perforation. We postponed surgical treatment as long as possible because he also exhibited bronchial bleeding due to a lung contusion. Surgical repair of the ruptured ventricular septum was performed 8 days after the chest trauma, because the pulmonary to systemic flow ratio was elevated to 4.6 and cardiac function had deteriorated. During the operation, the site of the septal perforation was easily detected by epicardial echocardiography. A 4-cm tear in the muscular septum was closed through a right ventriculotomy using a pericardial patch reinforced with a Dacron patch. Postoperative recovery was uneventful with the exception of transient right ventricular failure. There was no residual shunt.