Conclusions:The present meta-analysis demonstrated favourable outcomes for uniportal VATS lobectomy in the treatment of lung cancer compared to the conventional multiportal approach. However, long-term follow-up data is still needed to further characterize the benefits of the uniportal approach.

CONTEXT: Preterm birth is associated with incident heart failure in children and young adults.OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect size of preterm birth on cardiac remodeling from birth to young adulthood.DATA SOURCES: Data sources include Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane databases, and clinical trial registries (inception to March 25, 2020).STUDY SELECTION: Studies in which cardiac phenotype was compared between preterm individuals born at ,37 weeks' gestation and age-matched term controls were included.DATA EXTRACTION: Random-effects models were used to calculate weighted mean differences with corresponding 95% confidence intervals.RESULTS: Thirty-two observational studies were included (preterm = 1471; term = 1665). All measures of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) systolic function were lower in preterm neonates, including LV ejection fraction (P = .01). Preterm LV ejection fraction was similar from infancy, although LV stroke volume index was lower in young adulthood. Preterm LV peak early diastolic tissue velocity was lower throughout development, although preterm diastolic function worsened with higher estimated filling pressures from infancy. RV longitudinal strain was lower in preterm-born individuals of all ages, proportional to the degree of prematurity (R 2 = 0.64; P = .002). Preterm-born individuals had persistently smaller LV internal dimensions, lower indexed LV end-diastolic volume in young adulthood, and an increase in indexed LV mass, compared with controls, of 0.71 g/m 2 per year from childhood (P = .007). LIMITATIONS:The influence of preterm-related complications on cardiac phenotype could not be fully explored.CONCLUSIONS: Preterm-born individuals have morphologic and functional cardiac impairments across developmental stages. These changes may make the preterm heart more vulnerable to secondary insults, potentially underlying their increased risk of early heart failure.

Aerobic exercise commenced early after cardiac surgery significantly improves functional and aerobic capacity following cardiac surgery. While adverse event rates did not differ significantly, patients included were very low risk. Further studies are required to adequately assess safety outcomes of aerobic exercise commenced early after cardiac surgery.

Background: Robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) has been performed over the past decade. Despite encouraging results from selected centres, there is a paucity of robust clinical data to establish its clinical safety and efficacy. The present systematic review aimed to identify all relevant clinical data on robotic CABG. The primary endpoint was perioperative mortality, and secondary endpoints included perioperative morbidities, anastomotic complications, and long-term survival.Methods: Electronic searches were performed using three online databases from their dates of inception to 2016. Relevant studies fulfilling the predefined search criteria were categorized according to surgical techniques as (I) totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass without cardiopulmonary bypass (TECAB offpump); (II) TECAB on-pump; and robotic-assisted mammary artery harvesting followed by minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (robotic MIDCAB).Results: The present systematic review identified 44 studies that fulfilled the study selection criteria, including nine studies in the TECAB off-pump group and 16 studies in the robotic MIDCAB group.Statistical analysis reported a pooled mortality of 1.7% for the TECAB off-pump group and 1.0% for the robotic MIDCAB group. Intraoperative details such as the number and location of grafts performed, operative times and conversion rates, as well as postoperative secondary endpoints such as morbidities, anastomotic complications and long-term outcomes were also summarized for both techniques.Conclusions: A number of technical, logistic and cost-related issues continue to hinder the popularization of the robotic CABG procedure. Current clinical evidence is limited by a lack of randomized controlled trials, heterogeneous definition of techniques and complications, as well as a lack of robust clinical followup with routine angiography. Nonetheless, the present systematic review reported acceptable perioperative mortality rates for selected patients at specialized centres. These results should be considered as a useful benchmark for future studies, until further data is reported in the form of randomized trials.