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A 79-year-old man presented to our hospital with complaints of a sudden worsening of swelling in the right popliteal fossa and fever persisting for a week. Upon close examination, an infected popliteal artery aneurysm (PAA) was identified. Given the risk of rupture, the patient was advised to undergo surgery. The surgical procedure involved resecting the infectious PAA using a lateral approach. Additionally, a bypass was performed from the superficial femoral artery to the below-knee artery, utilizing the great saphenous vein located at the posterior aspect of the knee. Surgical findings revealed a popliteal artery pseudoaneurysm. Preoperative blood cultures identified Eubacterium spp., and cultures of the inoperative aneurysm specimens confirmed the presence of the same bacteria. After surgery, inflammation quickly subsided, and the patient was discharged on postoperative day (POD) 41 after receiving transvenous antibiotic therapy. Although PAA accounts for approximately 80% of all peripheral arterial aneurysms, mycotic aneurysms are relatively rare. Eubacterium spp. is part of the human intestinal or oral flora, and very few reports of bacteremia have been published. The present case of bacteremia caused by Eubacterium sp. is very rare; to the best of our knowledge, no literature has been published on this topic.

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Impella (Abiomed Inc., Danvers, MA, USA) assisted off-pump coronary artery bypass has been increasingly reported in recent years. However, there have been no reports of the procedures performed for acute myocardial infarction in which the patient is hemodynamically unstable. We report a case of a 73-year-old man with cardiogenic shock due to extensive ST elevation acute myocardial infarction that worsened despite Impella CP® support. Because of the fragile myocardium in the acute phase of myocardial infarction, Impella assisted off-pump coronary artery bypass graft causes a high risk of myocardial injury, but we were able to safely perform the procedure by ingenious techniques. Learning objective: When performing Impella-assisted off-pump coronary artery bypass for extensive acute myocardial infarction patients, the high risk of mechanical complications due to myocardial fragility must be considered. The position of Impella should be carefully monitored intraoperatively, and elevation of cardiac apex should be kept to a minimum to prevent myocardial damage caused by Impella.

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Left ventricular pseudoaneurysm with a left-to-right shunt is extremely rare, requiring surgery if symptomatic; however, surgery has a high risk. Here, the case of a 77-year-old man with heart failure symptoms is reported, in which he develops a giant left ventricular pseudoaneurysm 16 months after ventricular septal perforation repair as a result of acute myocardial infarction, with mild shunt blood flow from the pseudoaneurysm to the right ventricle. Intraoperative findings showed a free wall rupture along the area where the patch was secured during the initial surgery. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 13, and postoperative examination revealed no abnormalities.

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BACKGROUND: Many studies have defined sarcopenia based on psoas muscle mass using abdominal computed tomography (CT). We hypothesized that sarcopenia can be assessed by measuring pectoralis muscle mass on chest CT and aimed to examine its relationship with the postoperative prognosis of cardiac surgery. METHODS: This retrospective study included 189 patients who underwent cardiac surgery via median sternotomy between July 2020 and June 2022. We excluded patients <70 years old, urgent/emergent cases, no chest CT within 90 days before surgery, and cases in which evaluation of the pectoralis muscle was impossible with CT. The pectoralis muscle area (PMA) was measured using a preoperative chest CT. The sarcopenia cut-off value was defined as the lowest sex-specific tertile in PMA at the level of the 4th thoracic vertebrae. RESULTS: Eighty patients were included. The lower tertile were classified as the sarcopenia group (SG) (n = 26) and the rest as the non-sarcopenia group (NSG) (n = 54). In the SG, 1-year survival was significantly worse than that in NSG (NSG: 92.7% vs. SG: 54.9%, p < 0.0001). In the multivariate model, sarcopenia was an independent risk factor for mid-term all-cause death (hazard ratio, 4.89; 95% confidence interval: 1.14-21.0, p = 0.033). CONCLUSION: Preoperative sarcopenia defined using PMA was associated with poor mid-term survival after elective cardiac surgery via median sternotomy. The pectoralis muscle mass observed through a chest CT could be used for preoperative risk scoring in older patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

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Cardiac hemangioma is relatively rare, accounting for approximately 1-3% of all primary heart tumors. This benign tumor may be an incidental lesion, but can also cause arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, congestive heart failure or outflow obstruction. We report a rare case with exophytic cardiac hemangioma arising from the right ventricle. Echocardiography showed an approximately 40 mm round protruding mass on the anterior wall of the right ventricle. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance demonstrated isointense and hyperintense signals on T1- and T2-weighted images, respectively. These imaging studies suggested a pericardial cyst. Perioperative findings indicated a globular, exophytic mass, vascular in nature, arising from the right ventricle. The lesion was resected directly, and the space left by defect in the right ventricular wall was covered with a bovine pericardial patch. Cardiac hemangiomas are generally endoluminal tumors, but we must keep in mind that the differential diagnoses include various pericardial lesions by medical images.

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PURPOSE: Recently, guidelines recommended the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) for the management of non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is the most common post-surgical complication of cardiac surgery, but the efficacy and safety of DOAC for POAF have rarely been investigated. We conducted a prospective observational study to investigate the efficacy and safety of DOAC administered immediately after POAF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In all, 135 patients that experienced POAF after cardiac surgery were treated with a DOAC. Primary endpoints were either bleeding or thromboembolic events. Secondary endpoints included changes in hemoglobin (Hb), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), serum creatinine (sCr), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and pleural/pericardial effusion. RESULTS: Patients were treated with apixaban (n = 31), edoxaban (n = 87), and rivaroxaban (n = 17). Major bleeding (p = 0.011) and gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding (p = 0.047) were significantly more frequent in the rivaroxaban group. Stroke was observed in one rivaroxaban group patient and none in the other two groups. CONCLUSION: DOAC as anticoagulation therapy for the early intervention of POAF following cardiac surgery is associated with a low incidence of major bleeding; a favorable safety profile and excellent efficacy were demonstrated for DOAC. Furthermore, our results indicate that the safety and efficacy of apixaban and edoxaban are better than rivaroxaban.

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BACKGROUND AND AIM: Malnutrition is the central component of frailty that has an adverse influence on the prognosis of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The relationship between malnutrition and postoperative complications was evaluated in a retrospective cohort study. METHODS: In 287 patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery, nutritional status was assessed by using the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI). Then the patients were divided into a malnutrition group (GNRI <91) and a nonmalnutrition group (GNRI ≥91), after which the postoperative course was compared. RESULTS: There were 51 patients (17.8%) in the malnutrition group. Nine patients died after surgery and the operative mortality rate was significantly higher in the malnutrition group than the nonmalnutrition group (five deaths [9.8%] vs four deaths [1.8%]; P = .003). In addition, the duration of intensive care unit stay and hospital stay were both significantly longer in the malnutrition group compared with the nonmalnutrition group. Multivariate analysis showed that malnutrition was an independent predictor of hospitalization for longer than 1 month (odds ratio [OR]: 3.428; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.687-6.964; P = .001) and a postoperative bedridden state (OR: 7.377; 95% CI:1.874-29.041; P = .004). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative evaluation of the nutritional status using the GNRI seems to be valuable for predicting the risk of postoperative complications.

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We reviewed the records of 724 patients diagnosed with peritonsillar abscess who had been admitted to our hospital between January 1988 and December 1999. We analyzed their clinical features, disease course, and treatment. The male:female ratio was 3:1, and approximately two-thirds of these patients were between 20 and 39 years of age. The most common aerobic bacteria cultured from patients' pus were alpha-hemolytic streptococci. Severe complications---including deep neck infections and mediastinitis--were seen in 13 patients (1.8%). This complication rate suggests that patients with peritonsillar abscess should undergo immediate incision and drainage rather than needle aspiration.

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