Editor's Note In this study, having elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery under inhaled (ie, desflurane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane) anesthesia did not result in significantly fewer deaths than total intravenous (IV) anesthesia, though inhaled agents have cardioprotective effects. A total of 5,400 patients at 36 centers in 13 countries…

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Editor's Note This study comparing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with standard open-heart surgery found no difference in stroke or death from any cause at 2 years follow-up. The findings were presented March 17 at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans. A total of 1,468…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on February 15 identified Medtronic, Inc’s (Dublin, Ireland) recall of it’s Dual Chamber Implantable Pulse Generators (IPGs) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the possibility of a software error that can result in a lack of…

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Editor's Note Medtronic published an urgent recall on January 7 for a subset of its dual-chamber pacemakers because some may temporarily lose their ability to pace the heart. The recall affects 156,957 devices distributed worldwide between March 10, 2017, and January 7, 2019, under the brand names Adapta, Versa, and…

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Editor's Note No significant difference was found between endoscopic and open vein–graft harvesting in the risk of major adverse cardiac events, in this study. This analysis of 1,150 patients in 16 Veterans Affairs cardiac surgery centers found that during a median follow-up of 2.78 years, the primary outcome of a…

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Editor's Note Fish oil did not increase perioperative bleeding and reduced the number of blood transfusions in cardiac surgery patients, in this study. A total of 1,516 cardiac surgery patients were randomized to perioperative fish oil or placebo−from 2 to 5 days before surgery until discharge. The primary outcome of…

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Editor's Note In patients having coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, no significant difference was found in the risk of major adverse cardiac events between open and endoscopic vein-graft harvesting procedures, this study finds. In this analysis of 1,150 patients at 16 Veterans Affairs centers over a median follow-up of…

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Editor's Note Hospitals with high volumes of surgical aortic valve replacements (SAVRs) are more likely to be fast adopters of transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures (TAVRs), and accumulating SAVR and TAVR caseloads is associated with better survival after TAVR, this study finds. Using Medicare data on 60,538 TAVR procedures performed…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on November 2 identified the recall by Maquet Datascope Corp/Getinge Group’s Cardiosave Hybrid and Cardiosave Rescue Intra-aortic Balloon Pumps (IABPs) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the potential for the autofill process to malfunction or fail during…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 24 announced that beginning January 1, 2019, any hospital wanting to pursue the Advanced Certification in Heart Failure or Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification will no longer have to be accredited by the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission says it is making this change…

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