A revised modified Bentall's procedure using aorto-prosthetic hemostatic suture

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High-energy Drinks May Provoke Aortic Dissection

High-energy drinks have become extremely popular after Red Bull’s promotion at 1987 in Austria and 1997 in the United States. Since then, we witnessed spectacular increase in different brands, caffeine content and market consumption all over the world. However, there are no reports published in the scientific literature related with detrimental side effects after heavy consumption of high-energy drinks. We report a series of three high-risk cardiovascular patients who had aortic dissection (De Bakey type I and II) following significant consumption of high-energy drinks. All of them required emergency surgical procedure and were remaining stable after surgery. We propose that uncontrolled consumption of high-energy drinks, especially in patients with underlying heart disease, could provoke potentially lethal cardiovascular events as well as acute aortic dissection

Smoking Abstinence in Patients Scheduled for Elective Surgery

Smokers have an increased risk of perioperative and postoperative complications,including a higher incidence of airway and respiratory, cardiovascular events, andimpaired wound healing. This brief review will remind anesthesiologist and surgeonsthat their preoperative smoking intervention for smoking cessation can be effective indecreasing the incidence of complications. Preoperative smoking intervention, even ifit is both brief and intensive, may help to decrease this risk. The surgical event is theimportant ‘teachable moment’ that could translate, with proper smoking intervention,into permanent smoking cessation

Mitral Valve Prolapse: Novel Assessment With Real-Time 3D Echocardiography

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is the most common cause ofmitral regurgitation and the most frequent reason for mitralvalve surgery in Europe. The most traditional methodfor mitral valve evaluation has been two-dimensional (2D)transthoracic echocardiography. However, soon after its development,intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography(TEE) became the preferable imaging method for boththe perioperative decision-making process and postoperativeevaluation after mitral valve surgery. Improved imaging modalitiesand implementation of real-time 3D TEE provided enface views of the mitral valve from the left atrial perspective,and this method soon became the new gold standard for thediagnosis of MVP. Modern 3D echocardiographic imagingprovides three general modalities: volume rendered, biplaneor multi-plane, and color Doppler imaging. In this report, wedescribe the clinical implications of three-dimensional (3D)TEE in mitral valve reconstruction after MVP