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Biomedical subjects

B Airan

Publications and source records attributed to B Airan.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Surgical considerations of univentricular heart with total anomalous pulmonary venous connection.

Out of the 600 patients undergoing univentricular repair during the last 11 years, 20 children had associated total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. The objective was to outline the clues to establish the diagnosis of this rare disease combination and the various surgical options available to manage the same. Bidirectional Glenn, bilateral bidirectional Glenn, total cavopulmonary connection and atriopulmonary connection were performed in combination with rechannelling of various types of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection in 20 children aged 6 months to 36 months (mean +/- SD 17.65 +/- 9.02 months). Diagnosis could be established pre-operatively in only 13 (65%) patients. Out of 6 early deaths (30%), 4 were directly attributable to missed diagnosis. No late deaths occurred over a follow-up period ranging from 1 month to 132 months. None of the surviving children required reoperation and all are in NYHA functional class I. Doppler echocardiography of the surviving children revealed unrestricted atrio/cavopulmonary anastomosis and pulmonary vein to atrium connection in all survivors. Our own experience, coupled with a review of the literature, indicates that a missed diagnosis increases the hospital mortality. Cross sectional 2D echocardiography is a superior method of detection of associated total anomalous pulmonary venous connection compared to angiocardiography. Exclusion of the diagnosis of anomalous pulmonary venous connection is imperative in all univentricular hearts pre-operatively and on operation table. Failure to recognise this disease combination results in formation of a closed systemic circuit after bidirectional Glenn or a modified Fontan of connection and is lethal as happened in our early experience. It is suggested that one-stage Fontan operation should be performed only if other criteria for Fontan procedure are satisfied.

Cardiac Surgical Procedures↗

Non-myxomatous cardiac tumours: twenty-year experience.

Eighty-eight patients underwent surgery for various cardiac tumours from January 1978 to June 1998 at our Institute. Seventy-seven tumours were myxomas, 10 were non-myxomatous and one was secondary cardiac tumour. Case records of the patients with non-myxomatous primary cardiac tumours and one secondary tumour were reviewed. Six of these primary tumours were benign and four, malignant. Age of the patients ranged from 26 days to 47 years. Among patients (3 children, 8 adults) with non-myxomatous primary cardiac tumours, dyspnoea on exertion was the commonest symptom and was the cause of presentation in seven out of 11 patients. Of the eight adults, six were in New York Heart Association functional class II/III and two in class IV. Echocardiographic diagnosis was possible in all the patients. Complete excision of the tumour was possible in all benign and two of the four malignant tumours. Incomplete resection was done in the secondary tumour. Of the six benign tumours, three were rhabdomyomas and one each of fibroma, haemangioma and lipoma. The malignant tumours were one each of fibrosarcoma, angiosarcoma, unclassified sarcoma and malignant mesothelioma. The secondary tumour was a malignant thymoma. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 10 years (mean 7.2 years). Of the patients with benign tumours, four out of six are alive; one patient died on the first post-operative day and one lost to follow-up. Two of the four patients with malignant cardiac tumours died, one was lost to follow-up and one is alive two years after surgery. The patient with secondary malignant thymoma to the superior vena cava was lost to follow-up three months after an uneventful recovery from surgery.

Adult↗

Cardiac arrhythmias in surgically repaired total anomalous pulmonary venous connection: a follow-up study.

Twenty-five patients with diagnosis of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, who had undergone corrective surgery, were studied at variable time period after surgery with 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring (Holter) and echocardiography. The aim of this study was to record arrhythmias, if any, and to correlate occurrence of arrhythmia with adequacy of repair and other related variables. All the patients were clinically asymptomatic. Twenty-four hours ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring of these patients showed the presence of significant arrhythmias in 21 of the 25 patients. These included supraventricular ectopics in 19 patients, ventricular ectopics in 8, atrioventricular block in 2, right bundle branch block and atrial fibrillation 1 each and atrial tachycardia in 2 patients. There was no correlation between development of arrhythmia and age at repair, type of connection, operative approach and adequacy of repair. The study indicates that cardiac arrhythmias can occur in otherwise asymptomatic patients after correction for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Thus, these patients require long-term follow-up, even if they are asymptomatic.

Adolescent↗

Surgical considerations of extracardiac total cavopulmonary connection.

Extracardiac total cavopulmonary connection has been proposed as a rational alternative to the lateral intra-atrial tunnel for complex congenital cyanotic heart diseases undergoing univentricular repair. In five patients, aged 4 1/2 years to 27 years, an extracardiac lateral conduit was used for total cavopulmonary connection at our Institute. Extracardiac lateral conduits were constructed in all the five patients using polytetrafluoroethylene tube grafts. One child required reoperation because of graft thrombosis and an aortic homograft was used in him on the second occasion. Aortic cross clamp was completely avoided in all including reoperation. The results showed no early or late mortality. One child developed persistent hypoxemia and progressive hepatomegaly. Reoperation on 5th post-operative day revealed graft thrombosis with technically unrestricted anastomosis which was replaced by an aortic homograft. He also required embolectomy for inferior vena cava and hepatic veins thrombosis. Post-operative follow-up (range 3 months to 14 months) revealed all patients in functional class I and in normal sinus rhythm. Doppler echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and angiocardiography revealed unrestricted anastomoses and unobstructed pulmonary blood flow across the conduit. The technical advantages and haemodynamic benefits of this operation are encouraging. However, the lone incidence of graft thrombosis raises concern about the routine usage of synthetic grafts in extracardiac total pulmonary connection. Other inherent weakness appears to be the lack of growth potential of the synthetic tube.

Adolescent↗

Fatal atypical mycobacterial infection in a cardiac transplant recipient.

A 37-year-old female underwent heart transplantation for giant cell myocarditis. The patient died within three-and-a-half months of cardiac transplantation. Postmortem specimens from the heart and lung showed multiple necrotizing granulomas with numerous acid-fast bacilli. Polymerase chain reaction done on both the postmortem samples confirmed the presence of atypical mycobacterial infection. This fatal case of atypical mycobacteriosis in a cardiac transplant patient is reported for its rarity.

Adult↗

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection: surgical experience in Indians.

BACKGROUND: We report a retrospective analysis of the demographic. morphological and clinical profiles of patients along with results of operative repair for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the last 15 years, 248 patients (168 boys, 80 girls) underwent repair for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Their ages ranged from I day to 24 years (median 8 months) and 145 of them were < or = 1 year of age. The patients' weight ranged from 2 to 52 kg (median 5 kg). About 70% of patients (n = 174) were less than the 50th percentile of predicted weight for age and sex. The anomalous connection was supracardiac in 134 (54%), cardiac in 80 (32.2%), infracardiac in 9 (3.6%) and mixed in 25 (10.1%) patients. Fifty (20.2%) patients had obstructed drainage and 76 patients (30.2%) had moderate or severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. Forty-five patients (18.1%) had to be operated upon on an emergency basis. All the patients were operated upon using moderately hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. In 114 patients, circulatory arrest was used. There were 45 (19.1%) in-hospital deaths. The major causes of early death were pulmonary arterial hypertensive crisis in 19 (7.7%) and low cardiac output syndrome in 17 (6.9%) patients. Age < or = 1 year (odds ratio 2.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.22-3.82, p=0.008), severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (odds ratio 5.86; 95% confidence interval: 2-17, p=0.001), and need for emergency surgery (odds ratio 3.65; 95% confidence interval: 1.59-8.38, p=0.002) were independent risk factors for early death. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 180 months (median 48 months). There were 4 lake deaths. Actuarial survival at 12 years was 92.6% +/- 2.8%. CONCLUSIONS: In Indian circumstances, mortality continues to be high in infants with total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Severe pulmonary arterial hypertension appears to be the most important predictor of operative mortality. Severe malnutrition, delayed diagnosis and late referrals possibly contribute to the high mortality.

Adolescent↗

Right ventricle to pulmonary artery connections.

From March 1988 through June 1995, 80 patients underwent repair for right ventricle (RV) to pulmonary artery (PA) discontinuity. Of these, 30 patients received homograft conduits, while the remaining 50 underwent repair without the use of a homograft. Handmade pericardial valved vascutek conduits (n = 18), non-valved vascutek tubes (n = 13) and non-conduit procedures like the rev operation (n = 12) and extended pericardial gusset (n = 5) were mainly used. The indications for repair for RV-PA discontinuity included ventricular septal defect with pulmonary atresia (VSD PA) (n = 36), truncus arteriosus (n = 18), ventricular septal defect with pulmonary and major aorto-pulmonary collaterals (VSD PA MAPCA) with staged repair (n = 5), congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries with ventricular septal defect and pulmonic stenosis (CCTGA VSD PS) (n = 5) and double outlet left ventricle with ventricular septal defect and pulmonic stenosis (DOLV VSD PS) (n = 5). The choice of the procedure was governed by various factors, including type of cardiac defect, pulmonary artery pressure and morphology, previous operation, socio-economic constraints and availability of appropriate sized homografts. Non-circuit operations may prevent future reoperations in these patients.

Adolescent↗

Serial echocardiography in transplanted heart: an initial report of five cases.

Role of echocardiography including Doppler is established in selection of donor and in the care of patients after cardiac transplantation. Its value for recognition of transplant rejection is however still evolving. We present here, serial echocardiographic findings in five male patients, aged 22 to 46 years who underwent cardiac transplantation at our institution. There was no appreciable change on follow-up in the left ventricular dimensions, thickness of left ventricular posterior wall and interventricular septum and left ventricular systolic function. Transient pericardial effusion was noted in two patients. Trivial to mild mitral and tricuspid regurgitation was observed. The diastolic function of the left ventricle, as assessed by mitral valve inflow wave pattern, was normal in four patients. However in the fifth patient, there was evidence of diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle and this change was accompanied by rejection episode (IIIB changes) in the endomyocardial biopsy. With resolution of rejection in biopsy, the diastolic function by Doppler also returned to normal. We conclude that echocardiography has a definite role in the general care of patients after cardiac transplantation. Transient small pericardial effusion and mild atrioventricular valve regurgitation are common after the operation. Echocardiography may also be of use in recognition of rejection episode by demonstrating evidence of diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. Currently, endomyocardial biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis of rejection.

Adult↗

Aortoaortic bypass: indications, techniques and results.

The standard surgical treatment of complex cases of aortic obstructions is difficult and sometimes even hazardous, thus necessitating the use of alternative surgical methods to manage these cases. Between 1986 and 1995, nine such patients underwent ascending aorta to descending/abdominal aorta bypass graft as an alternative procedure at a premier medical institution. There was no hospital death nor any significant morbidity. Preoperative systolic blood pressure in right upper limb ranged from 150 mm Hg to 230 mm Hg (mean 180.5 mm Hg) while postoperative systolic blood pressure in right upper limb ranged from 126 mm Hg to 150 mm Hg (mean 134 mm Hg), thereby showing marked improvement. Preoperative pressure gradient across the aortic obstruction ranged from 50 mm Hg to 120 mm Hg (mean 87.2 mm Hg). It was relieved in all except two patients who had resting gradients of 10 mm Hg and 12 mm Hg respectively. All the patients were relieved of their symptoms. After a mean follow-up of 33.3 months (range 6 to 108 months), all the patients are in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class I with evidence of good distal perfusion. This technique of bypassing the aortic obstruction has the added advantage of avoiding the complications associated with standard technique.

Adult↗

Pathology of cardiac transplantation--the initial experience.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac transplantation has recently been started in India at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. All transplants are monitored by right ventricular endomyocardial biopsies. This study describes our initial experience with the histopathological assessment of post-transplant endomyocardial biopsies. METHODS: Fifty-four endomyocardial biopsies from 8 transplanted hearts were reviewed. At least 3 haematoxylin-eosin and Masson trichrome stained sections were available on each biopsy. Special stains and immunohistochemistry were done as required. Biopsies were graded for rejection using the grading system of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Infection, 'Quilty' effect, biopsy site, ischaemia and reperfusion injury were also assessed. RESULTS: There was no evidence of rejection in 34 biopsies. Eleven biopsies showed mild rejection. Only 9/54 biopsies from 4 of the transplant recipients had clinically significant grades of rejection. Biopsy sites were present in 13/54 biopsies. Ischaemia was present in the first biopsy after transplantation in 4 recipients. There was no evidence of viral or parasitic infection. 'Quilty' lesions were seen in 14/54 biopsies from 5 transplant recipients. Four of these 5 recipients had 'Quilty' lesions on more than 1 biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: The low rejection rate at our centre is consistent with reports from around the world. Endomyocardial biopsy has been a safe, convenient and useful method for diagnosing rejection and monitoring the postoperative course of cardiac transplants at our centre.

Adult↗