The US Centers for Medicare and medicaid Services (CMS) convened a panel on 07/25/2018 to discuss recommendations for hospitals to maintain and begin TAVR programs. The focus of the discussion was the procedural volume requirements for TAVR, SAVR, and PCI (
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Cardiac
July 26, 2018
Barili and colleagues discuss the importance of identifying heterogeneity in meta-analyses and the use of a random-effects or fixed-effects model to account for differences between or within studies. The authors review the assumptions and components of these models, discussing appropriate applications for each of them.
July 26, 2018
Neil Moat of the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK, discusses current devices for transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement.
July 25, 2018
This video, filmed by the BBC, shows one of the first totally endoscopic mitral valve repairs using the lateral endoscopic approach with robotics technique performed in the UK, and it follows a patient's remarkable recovery from this procedure.
July 25, 2018
Interesting to read that percutaneous coronary intervention did not confer any survival benefit (nor protection from myocardial infarction) in an international randomized controlled trial of 888 patients when compared to medical therapy!
July 24, 2018
This article discusses the periareolar approach for minimally invasive cardiac surgery, a feasible and safe technique that has aesthetic benefits and gives appropriate surgical visualization.
July 23, 2018
Ma and colleagues evaluated left ventricular diastolic function in 183 patients who had undergone isolated aortic valve replacement for severe aortic regurgitation. Echocardiographic data was used to evaluate the relationship between preoperative diastolic function and postoperative mortality and cardiac function.
July 20, 2018
The authors report on their experience with three-demensional (3D) printed heart models in congenital cardiac surgery, having printed 20 3D models for preoperative simulation within the last three years. All operations were performed by a young consultant surgeon.
July 17, 2018
The use of ultrasonic energy in vessel harvesting for coronary artery bypass provides several advantages over the conventional diathermy during the preparation of the arterial graft, and harmonic shears may be beneficial in being faster, reducing bleeding, and allowing the surgeon to work closely to the vessel.
July 16, 2018
Inoue and Suematsu report their experience using a minimally invasive approach to left atrial appendage resection. The procedure was performed in 87 patients using an endoscopic linear cutter device, without cardiopulmonary bypass or cardiac arrest.