INTRODUCTION Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) may culminate in sudden death by ventricular fibrillation, cardiogenic shock, and cardiac rupture. We present a case of postinfarction rupture treated by direct closure and coronary artery bypass grafting after thrombolytic therapy. CASE REPORT A 67-year-old woman with cardiac risk factors of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and being post-menopa...

T he debate about the advantages of fibrinolytic therapy or primary percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PCI) as a superior reperfusion strategy for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has continued for 30 years. In the first decade, primary PCI was limited by first-generation equipment, inadequate radiographic imaging systems, suboptimal adjunctive antithrombotic therapy, and delays in ti...

Treatment of left ventricle wall rupture is very challenging, ruptured myocardial tissue is usually of poor quality and has a high risk of total rupture when being sutured. Furthermore, rapid decision-making is needed under stressful conditions. We present a series of three cases demonstrating the feasibility of using only hemostatic collagen sponges for the management of left ventricle wall ru...

Left ventricular aneurysm is one of the most troublesome complications of myocardial infarction. This complication results from LV wall rupture and presents as a cavity contained by pericardium and fragments of the ruptured wall. The risk of pseudoaneurysm rupture is very high and this makes the prognosis for the disease extremely unfavorable. A surgical correction, involving a patch repair of ...

The clinical features of cardiac rupture with tamponade in acute myocardial in-farction have been studied in an attempt to predict this complication and find clues to prophylactic and therapeutic measures. Eleven cases with rupture of the free left ventricular wall in a consecutive series of 529 coronary care unit (CCU) patients with acute myocardial infarction have been analyzed. These 11 pati...

Cardiac rupture (CR) is a life-threatening mechanical complication of acute myocardial infarction (MI). CR subsumes 3 pathogenetic entities in descending order of frequency including (i) free wall rupture (FWR), (ii) ventricular septal rupture (VSR) and (iii) papillary muscle rupture (PMR). The incidence of CR decreased from 6.2% to 3.2% in parallel with a progressive use of revascularization p...