Rheumatic mitral valve disease, a preventable and eradicable condition, remains the primary indication of mitral valve surgery in developing countries. Delayed surgery is the main cause of giant left atrium (LA). This extreme dilatation of LA causes various complications compromising hemodynamic stability. We describe herein a patient with severe mitral stenosis and giant LA who had successful surgical correction by mitral valve replacement with reduction of the size of a LA.

Effusive-constrictive pericarditis isan uncommon condition characterizedby concomitant existence of pericardial effusionand constriction caused by the visceral pericardium. Tuberculosis remains the main cause in developing countries.The clinical profile of our case is presented as well as a discussion of the definition, etiologies, indications for surgery and surgical management.

No abstract

The treatment of complex aortic pathologies involving the ascending aorta, the aortic arch, and the descending aorta continues to be a challenging situation in aortic surgery. The frozen elephant trunk technique has been increasingly used but there still is an ongoing discussion within the surgical community about the optimal indications. We present herein a patient with a complex aortic aneurysm involving all three segments of the thoracic aorta. The device used is a hybrid prosthesis consisting of a proximal woven polyester graft and a distal self-expanding nitinol stent graft, which can be delivered antegrade into the descending aorta.