Oral amiodarone prophylaxis of atrial tachyarrhythmias after cardiac surgery is effective and may be safe overall and in important patient subgroups. Clinical Trials Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00251706.

A high PI predicts technically inadequate arterial grafts during surgery--even if all other intra-operative assessments indicate good grafts; it also predicts outcomes, particularly mortality.

Brain injury at presentation adversely affects hospital survival of patients with type A acute aortic dissection. In the present observational study, the patients selected to undergo surgery demonstrated improved late survival and frequent reversal of neurologic deficits.

Surgical treatment for angina pectoris was first proposed in 1899. Decades of experimental surgery for coronary artery disease finally led to the introduction of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in 1964. Now that we are approaching 50 years of CABG experience, it is appropriate to summarize the advancement of CABG into a procedure that is safe and efficient. This review provides a historical recapitulation of experimental surgery, the evolution of the surgical techniques and the utilization of CABG. Furthermore, data on contemporary clinical outcomes are discussed.