Performing coronary angioplasties at hospitals without surgical backup seems to be safe for a wide variety of patients, from those presenting ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction to those undergoing elective procedures. This work responds to a long-running debate over whether centers without on-site surgery capabilities in case of complications can be considered as referral centers...
Courtesy of Dr. Agustín Vecchia. The link between operator volume and clinical outcomes has been long and widely debated. After years of discussion, there are promoters and detractors. Currently, interventional cardiology societies all over the world classify centers as “high-volume” or “low-volume” using arbitrary parameters, and require training fellows to perform an also arbitrary number of...
Dr. Marco Antonio Martínez Ríos comes from a family of physicians. “Studying Medicine was the most natural thing in the world for me,” admits Martínez Ríos, who in 1993 became president of the Latin American Group of Interventional Cardiology (Grupo Latinoamericano de Cardiología Intervencionista, GLACI), the seed that would grow to become SOLACI in 1994. ...
The aim of this study was to test whether perioperative treatment with rosuvastatin 20 mg could prevent the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation and reduce myocardial damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The data showed that rosuvastatin was not effective in preventing the occurrence of atrial fibrillation or reduce myocardial damage measured by troponin. Barbara...
Review: Two hundred twenty-four patients in a surgical plan, (coronary artery bypass grafting or valve), were randomized to cardiac surgery alone or associated with atrial ablation, (MAZE, 97% for cryoablation). The primary objective was the evaluation of sinus rhythm at 1 year by performing a Holter. The difference was 60.2% versus 35.5% in favor of...
Atrial fibrillation (AF) prolongues post-operative central vascular surgery, increasing morbidity and costs. Though smaller, a few trials have shown positive results for Omega-3 fatty acids. This multi-center trial randomized 1516 patients scheduled for cardiac surgery to receive Omega 3 or placebo. Primary end point was occurrence of AF. Follow up didn’t show difference between Omega...
Increasingly, the frequent performances of elective angioplasties are in hospitals that do not have a cardiac surgery team. The occurrence for the need of emergency surgery varies from 0.1 to 0.4% in the contemporary age. There is an ongoing debate on health policy about whether to perform elective coronary angioplasty at hospitals without cardiac surgery...
Original title: Five-year outcomes in patients with left main disease treated with either percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting in the synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with taxus and cardiac surgery trial. Reference: Morice MC et al. Circulation. 2014 Jun 10;129(23):2388-94. Current guidelines recommend CABG as the strategy of choice for treating lesions of...
Original title: Balloon aortic valvuloplasty in the era of transcatheter aortic valve replacement: Acute and long-term outcomes. Reference: Hélène Eltchaninoff et al. Am Heart J 2014;167:235-40. Late 80s initial enthusiasm in aortic valvuloplasty was quickly tempered with the publication of several studies showing a high rate of complications, poor durability and little or no impact on survival. Since...
Original title: Comparison of Two Antiplatelet Therapy Strategies in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation. Reference: Eric Durand et al. Am J Cardiol 2013, et al. Percutaneous aortic valve replacement has been shown to be superior to medical treatment in inoperable patients and not inferior to surgery in high-risk patients. Anti-platelet therapy in these patients is usually...