Radial Artery as the Preferred Second Conduit for Coronary Bypass

The effect of the multiple arterial grafts compared with single arterial graft for coronary artery bypass grafting on sternal wound complications: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis investigation was executed to measure the influence of multiple arterial grafts (MAGs) compared with single arterial graft (SAG) for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) on sternal wound complications (SWCs). A comprehensive literature inspection till February 2023 was applied and 1048 interrelated investigations were reviewed. The seven chosen investigations enclosed 11 201 individuals with CABG in the chosen investigations' starting point, 4870 of them were using MAGs, and 6331 were using SAG. Odds ratio (OR) in addition to 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were utilised to compute the value of the effect of the MAGs compared with SAG for CABG on SWCs by the dichotomous approaches and a fixed or random model. MAGs had significantly higher SWC (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.10-1.73, P = .005) compared with those with SAG in CABG. MAGs had significantly higher SWC compared with those with SAG in CABG. However, care must be exercised when dealing with its values because of the low number of selected investigations for the meta-analysis.

Deep Sternal Wound Infection and Mortality in Cardiac Surgery: A Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) is a rare but severe complication after cardiac surgical procedures and has been associated with increased early morbidity and mortality. Studies reporting long-term outcomes in patients with DSWI have shown contradictory results. We performed a study-level meta-analysis evaluating the impact of DSWI on short- and long-term clinical outcomes.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was conducted to identify studies comparing short- and long-term outcomes of patients submitted to cardiac surgical procedures who developed DSWI and patients who did not. The primary outcome was overall mortality. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality, follow-up mortality, major adverse cardiovascular events, myocardial infarction, and repeat revascularization. Postoperative outcomes were also investigated.

RESULTS

Twenty-four studies totaling 407 829 patients were included. Overall, 6437 (1.6%) patients developed DSWI. Mean follow-up was 3.5 years. DSWI was associated with higher overall mortality (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.99; 95% CI, 1.66-2.38; P < .001), in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 3.30; 95% CI, 1.88-5.81; P < .001), follow-up mortality (IRR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.39-2.94; P = .001), and major adverse cardiovascular events (IRR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.60-2.59; P < .001). No differences in myocardial infarction and repeat revascularization were found, but limited studies reported those outcomes. DSWI was associated with longer postoperative hospitalization, stroke, myocardial infarction, and respiratory and renal failure. Sensitivity analyses on isolated coronary artery bypass grafting studies and by adjustment method were consistent with the main analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with patients who did not develop DSWI, patients with DSWI after cardiac surgical procedures had increased risk of death as well as short- and long-term adverse clinical outcomes.

A Robust Seven-Gene Signature Associated With Tumor Microenvironment to Predict Survival Outcomes of Patients With Stage III-IV Lung Adenocarcinoma

Background

Due to the relatively insidious early symptoms of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), most LUAD patients are at an advanced stage at the time of diagnosis and lose the best chance of surgical resection. Mounting evidence suggested that the tumor microenvironment (TME) was highly correlated with tumor occurrence, progress, and prognosis. However, TME in advanced LUAD remained to be studied and reliable prognostic signatures based on TME in advanced LUAD also had not been well-established. This study aimed to understand the cell composition and function of TME and construct a gene signature associated with TME in advanced LUAD.

Methods

The immune, stromal, and ESTIMATE scores of each sample from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were, respectively, calculated using an ESTIMATE algorithm. The LASSO and Cox regression model were applied to select prognostic genes and to construct a gene signature associated with TME. Two independent datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were used for external validation. Twenty-two subsets of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (Tiics) were analyzed using the CIBERSORT algorithm.

Results

Favorable overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were found in patients with high immune score (p = 0.048 and p = 0.028; respectively) and stromal score (p = 0.024 and p = 0.025; respectively). Based on the immune and stromal scores, 453 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Using the LASSO and Cox regression model, a seven-gene signature containing AFAP1L2, CAMK1D, LOXL2, PIK3CG, PLEKHG1, RARRES2, and SPP1 was identified to construct a risk stratification model. The OS and PFS of the high-risk group were significantly worse than that of the low-risk group (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001; respectively). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis confirmed the good potency of the seven-gene signature. Similar findings were validated in two independent cohorts. In addition, the proportion of macrophages M2 and Tregs was higher in high-risk patients (p = 0.041 and p = 0.022, respectively).

Conclusion

Our study established and validated a seven-gene signature associated with TME, which might serve as a prognosis stratification tool to predict survival outcomes of advanced LUAD patients. In addition, macrophages M2 polarization may lead to worse prognosis in patients with advanced LUAD.

Meta-Analysis Comparing Multiple Arterial Grafts Versus Single Arterial Graft for Coronary-Artery Bypass Grafting

Observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown conflicting outcomes for multiple arterial graft (MAG) coronary artery bypass graft surgery compared with single arterial grafts (SAGs). The predominant evidence supporting the use of MAGs is observational. The aim of this meta-analysis of RCTs is to compare outcomes following MAG and SAG. We searched multiple databases for RCTs comparing MAG versus SAG. The clinical outcomes studied were all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), revascularization, stroke, sternal wound complications, and major bleeding. We used hazard ratio (HR), relative risk (RR), and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for measuring outcomes. Ten RCTs (6392 patients) were included. The average follow-up in the studies was 4.2 years. The average age of the patients in the studies ranged from 56.3 years to 74.6. No significant difference was seen between MAG and SAG groups for all-cause mortality (11.8% vs 12.7%, HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.81 to 1.09, p 0.36), cardiac mortality (4.1% vs 4.5%, HR 0.96 95% CI 0.74 to 1.26, p 0.77), MI (3.5% vs 5.1%, HR 0.87 95% CI 0.67 to 1.12, p 0.28), and major bleeding (3.3% vs 4.9%, RR 0.85 95% CI 0.64 to 1.13, p 0.26). Repeat revascularization in MAG showed a lower RR than SAG when one of the confounding studies was excluded (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.99, p 0.04). The incidence of stroke was lower in MAG than SAG (2.9% vs 3.9%, RR 0.74 95% CI 0.56 to 0.98, p 0.03). MAG had higher incidence of sternal wound complications than SAG (2.9% vs 1.7%, RR 1.75 95% CI 1.19 to 2.55, p 0.004). In conclusion, MAG does not have a survival advantage compared with SAG but is better in revascularization and risk of stroke. This benefit may be set off by a higher incidence of sternal wound complications in MAG.

Endoscopic Radial Artery Harvesting During Anesthesia Line Placement Reduces the Time and Cost of Multivessel Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Objective

Endoscopic radial artery (RA) harvesting performed concurrently with internal mammary artery (IMA) takedown and endoscopic saphenous vein (SV) harvesting creates a crowded and inefficient operating room environment. We assessed the effect of a presternotomy RA harvest strategy on surgery time and costs.

Methods

A total of 41 patients underwent elective, first-time, isolated multivessel on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting including an IMA, RA, and SV graft. The first 20 patients (Phase I) underwent endoscopic RA harvesting concurrently with IMA takedown and endoscopic SV harvesting after sternotomy, requiring two sets of endoscopic harvesting equipment per case, each used by a separate individual. The final 21 patients (Phase II) underwent endoscopic RA harvesting during anesthesia line placement, completing the procedure before sternotomy, thus requiring only one set of endoscopic harvesting equipment reused by a single individual.

Results

There were no differences in baseline patient characteristics, number of bypasses, duration of SV or RA harvest time, or duration of cardiopulmonary bypass or cross-clamp time between the two groups. Total surgery time was reduced by 32 minutes in Phase II ( P = 0.044). Relative to a total hospital direct cost of 100.00 units, total surgery costs were reduced from 29.33 units in Phase I to 25.62 units in Phase II ( P = 0.001). No anesthesia- or RA harvest-related complications occurred in either group.

Conclusions

Endoscopic RA harvesting can be safely performed during anesthesia line placement prior to sternotomy. Our simple but innovative strategy improves intraoperative workflow, reduces the time and cost of surgery, and advances the delivery of high-quality patient care.