Abstract

A major and often fatal consequence of heart surgery is postoperative cognitive impairment. In individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, serum levels of glial cell line-derived neurotropic factor are lowered, however it is unclear how these levels and postoperative cognitive deterioration are related. With patients with rheumatic heart disease having heart valve replacement, the current study sought to determine the predictive usefulness of postoperative serum glial cell line-derived neurotropic factor levels to forecast postoperative cognitive impairment.

The primary strategy for treating postpneumonectomy syndrome (PPS) involves mediastinal repositioning and the placement of allogeneic implants to completely fill the postpneumonectomy gap. Here, we describe a rare instance of a PPS combined with a congenital pectus excavatum. Simple heart repositioning is not achievable without sternum elevation because the pectus excavatus deformity restricts retrosternal space.