A 75-year-old woman presented with dyspnea, and was admitted urgently on a diagnosis of concurrent acute cardiac insufficiency. Because of her low blood pressure and respiratory failure, care was started in the intensive care unit. A transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) showed severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR). We concluded that her cardiogenic shock was caused by acute right heart failure with severe TR and therefore carried out emergency surgery. We noted expansion of the tricuspid valve ring and shortening of the tendinous cord, and the leaflet was pulled into the right ventricle side. Initially we attempted a tricuspid annuloplasty (TAP), but it proved difficult to control the TR. We therefore performed a tricuspid valve replacement (TVR). The patient was moved from the intensive care unit to a general ward 10 days after the operation, and to another hospital 26 days later.

We investigated how cardiovascular surgeons get a day off.

A 50-year-old man with a history of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) 5 years prior to presentation underwent MitraClip placement for severe mitral regurgitation. Subsequently, he underwent on-pump beating heart endoscopic minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) for mitral valve replacement for acute heart failure secondary to single leaflet device attachment. Endoscopic MICS via a right small thoracotomy approach is useful for reoperation after CABG in patients with a high risk of graft injury. Beating-heart surgery may be an effective option to avoid the risks associated with prolonged cardiac arrest time in patients with low left ventricular function.

A 78-year-old woman was referred to our hospital because of progressive exertional dyspnea due to nonrheumatic severe aortic valve stenosis and moderate mitral valve stenosis with mitral annular calcification. We subsequently performed aortic valve replacement and mitral anterior leaflet decalcification. During surgery, we found that the cause of mitral valve stenosis was calcification of A2 aortic curtain-medial trigon through aortic valve annulus and resected calcification with SONOPET. The postoperative echocardiography revealed good mitral valve motion with mild mitral valve stenosis.