Research in cardio-thoracic surgery a European challenge.

An innovative technique to control bleeding with vacuum device.

Bleeding is one of the major problems during surgery as well as in cases of accidental vascular injury. Control of bleeding can be life threatening in two surgical circumstances: when the wound is difficult to expose, and when the tissue too fragile to suture. Following more than 100 animal tests, we developed an innovative vacuum-based suction device, which enables us to address this challenge...

European guidelines on structure and qualification of general thoracic surgery.

OBJECTIVE To update the recommendations for the structural characteristics of general thoracic surgery (GTS) in Europe in order to provide a document that can be used as a guide for harmonizing the general thoracic surgical practice in Europe. METHODS A task force was created to set the structural, procedural and qualification characteristics of a European GTS unit. These criteria were endors...

The use of a bone substitute composite in the management of a post-pneumonectomy bronchopleural fistula.

Post-pneumonectomy bronchopleural fistulas (BPFs) still represent a formidable therapeutic challenge. Several procedures have been proposed of which the least invasive are gaining distinct recognition and favour. We report the case of small-sized BPF treated by plastering the bronchial stump with a combination of bone substitute composite sprayed on a scaffold made of a Vycril mesh and placed o...

Uninformative and misleading comparison of EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II.

Gary S. Collins* and Yannick Le Manach a Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK b Department of Anesthesia, Michael DeGroote School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University and the Perioperative Research Group, Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Canada c Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, M...

Images in cardio-thoracic surgery: DeBekay repair for type III thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm.