Electrocardiographic findings at first medical contact and direct transfer to the catheterization laboratory are important in acute total occlusion of the left main coronary artery. Simultaneous emergency angioplasty and intra-aortic balloon pump implantation might be beneficial in overcoming the patient's most critical hemodynamic instability.

In this report, we present the case of two patients who experienced the development of acute pulmonary oedema during biventricular pacemaker implantation for cardiac resynchronization therapy. In both the cases, the activation of an intra-aortic balloon pump improved the clinical condition and the operation could be completed, which would otherwise have to be postponed.

Compartment syndrome is a rare, devastating complication of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). Prompt diagnosis is based on symptoms and signs and is paramount for limb rescue. This report describes a CABG patient with IABP in whom receiving continuous analgesia-sedation obscured the symptoms of compartment syndrome.

This report describes an emergent balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) procedure performed under cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a 79-year-old man with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (mean gradient 78 mm Hg, valve area 0.71 cm, and left ventricular ejection fraction 40%) awaiting surgery and who was admitted for heart failure rapidly evolving to cardiogenic shock and multiorgan failure. Deci...

Cardiac surgeons have to face the problem of impaired left ventricle function in patients undergoing routine valve or coronary procedures. The intra-aortic balloon pump is not always effective in preventing cardiac failure. The idea of using a microaxial rotating pump as a short-term perioperative support seems to be a convenient solution. The case of a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy under...

The MitraClip NT™ system for the treatment of severe mitral valve regurgitation is effective and safe - even for patients suffering from cardiogenic shock. The use of an intra-aortic balloon pump expands the range of possible applications to this particular group of challenging patients.

Objective To summarize the effect of mild hypothermia on function of the organs in patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Methods The patients were randomly divided into two groups, northermia group (n=71) and hypothermia group (n=89). We immediately began cooling the hypothermia group when test results showed multiple organ dysfunction syndrom...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the in-hospital health outcome and 10-year survival in patients undergoing redo coronary surgery with (redo-CABG) or without (redo-OPCAB) cardiopulmonary bypass. METHODS A total of 349 redo coronary surgery patients were identified from our registry. Of these, 143 redo-OPCAB patients (40.97%) were compared with 206 redo-CABG patients. To minimize the bias, we also co...