We report a case of mitral valve replacement without aortic cross clamp in a patient with MitraClip failure. The patient is an 83-year-old man with a history of coronary artery bypass surgery 31 years earlier. He developed heart failure due to severe mitral regurgitation. He underwent MitraClip, but it caused mitral stenosis and hemodynamic instability. Considering the severe calcification of the ascending aorta and previous bypass grafts, typical median sternotomy surgery with cross clamp had to be avoided. We performed mitral valve replacement via right thoracotomy under ventricular fibrillation. The postoperative course was favorable. Mitral valve surgery with ventricular fibrillation could be undertaken safely for a patient with difficulty in aortic cross clamp.

A computed tomography (CT) scan was performed for a man in his 60s to investigate a continuous murmur. An 18-mm coronary aneurysm with a fistula with the pulmonary artery was found on the anterior aspect of the main pulmonary artery (MPA),and a 10-mm coronary aneurysm was found on the lateral aspect. Abnormal inflow vessels originating from the right sinus of Valsalva and the left anterior descending artery (LAD) formed a complicated network around the MPA. Although the patient was asymptomatic, the aneurysms were saccular and considered to be an indication for surgery to prevent rupture. In addition, heart failure, embolism, and myocardial ischemia could be prevented by treatment. We planned a hybrid therapy of open surgery and percutaneous coil embolization. Surgical repair was performed through a median sternotomy. The abnormal vessel originating from the right sinus of Valsalva was ligated under cardiopulmonary bypass. After cardiac arrest, the 18-mm aneurysm located on the anterior surface of the MPA was incised and the orifice of the fistula and inflow vessels were closed from the inside of the aneurysm. The anomalous vessels originating from the LAD and the 10-mm aneurysm on the lateral aspect of the MPA were located near the LAD; therefore, we avoided surgical repair of these lesions. An additional percutaneous coil embolization was performed postoperatively for the remaining lesions. A post-embolization CT scan showed no residual aneurysms or fistula. A hybrid treatment may be a useful method to reduce the risk of complications of each therapy for reliable closures of fistula and aneurysms.

A female in her 60 s with a mobile cardiac tumor in the left atrium was referred to our hospital. The tumor was diagnosed as myxoma by echocardiography, CT scan, and MRI. Under cardiac arrest using cardiopulmonary bypass, we resected the tumor through the superior trans-septal approach. We resected two tumors (tumor 1 and 2) with adequate rims of the interatrial septum to avoid recurrence. Although the tumor had a broad base and extended to near the mitral annulus, mitral valve repair was not necessary. Tumor 1 was gelatinous and seemed to be a myxoma ; tumor 2 had a lot of papillary structures attached to the solid mass and presented with the figure of a sea anemone when it was put in saline, which is typical for papillary fibroelastomas. The defect of the interatrial septum was closed with the autologous pericardium. The postoperative course was uneventful. Unexpectedly, both tumor 1 and 2 were diagnosed as myxomas on pathological examination. Tumor 2 (papillary lesion) included a few tumor cells with positive staining of calretinin typical for myxoma and was diagnosed as a “villous-type myxoma”. Because it is difficult to distinguish myxoma from papillary fibroelastoma by pre- and intraoperative findings, it would be recommended to resect tumors with an adequate margin to prevent recurrence.