Infants with complete atrioventricular canal (CAVC) and severe congestive heart failure, not responding to medical managements, presents a difficult management problem. Between December, 1980, and August, 1987, 16 infants with CAVC presenting severe congestive heart failure underwent pulmonary artery banding. Average age at operation was 1.7 months (0.5 to 4) and average weight was 3.5kg (2.5∼4.9). Only four patients were older than 3 months of age at operation. Pre-operative cardiac catheterization and echocardiogram demonstrated that seven patients had mild to severe left atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Hospital death occurred in one patient (6%) due to rupture of the pulmonary artery. Of three late deaths, one patient had congestive heart failure, and one patient complicated with partial obstruction of right pulmonary artery died suddenly of an upper respiratory infection 11 months after rebanding. Survivors have been followed 18 to 94 months and all patients are growing at an increased rate postoperatively. In five patients of 12 long-term survivors who have undergone cardiac catheterization 37 to 83 months after the operation, pulmonary/systemic systolic pressure ratio (PP/PS) were 0.2∼0.42 (average 0.28). It is concluded that the pulmonary artery banding in infants with CAVC can be performed with low operative and late mortality and can provide good relief of symptoms and allow normal growth and development. It should be emphasized that early surgical palliation is mandatory to prevent the development of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary emphysematous change.

A 68-year-old man was brought to our emergency department because of an accidental nail-gun injury to the chest. Chest computed tomography in the hybrid emergency room revealed a 9 cm length of nail that had penetrated the anterior chest wall, left ventricle, and descending aorta, and was lodged in the 11th thoracic vertebral body. Immediate surgical repair was performed under left anterolateral thoracotomy using partial cardiopulmonary bypass, and closure of the penetrating site in the left ventricle and aorta was successfully conpleted. He had no major complications postoperatively.

A 79-year-old woman with left hemiplegia and loss of consciousness was transferred to a previous hospital. She underwent a CT-scan of the aorta and CT-perfusion of the brain and was diagnosed with Stanford type A acute aortic dissection complicated with cerebral malperfusion with narrowing of the right carotid artery region. She was transferred to our hospital and underwent emergency ascending aorta replacement. Preoperative CT perfusion findings predicted improvement of neurological symptoms after aortic repair, and she had no neurological complications postoperatively.