The Annals of thoracic surgery
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Multicenter Study
Sexual Harassment and Cardiothoracic Surgery: #UsToo?
Fifty-eight percent of women in science, engineering, and medicine report being affected by sexual harassment (SH). This study sought to determine the extent of SH in cardiothoracic surgery. ⋯ SH is present in cardiothoracic surgery among faculty and trainees. Although women surgeons are more commonly affected, male surgeons also are subjected to SH. Despite witnessed events, intervention currently is limited. Policies, safeguards, and bystander training should be instituted to decrease these events.
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Case Reports
Pneumonectomy in an Older Patient With Swyer-James-MacLeod Syndrome With a Giant Bulla.
Swyer-James-MacLeod syndrome is a rare lung disease that appears as unilateral pulmonary hyperlucency on chest radiographs and is considered to occur as a result of childhood bronchiolitis obliterans. We report the case of a 54-year-old woman who experienced exertional dyspnea owing to Swyer-James-MacLeod syndrome associated with a giant calcified bulla that occupied the entire hemithorax. ⋯ Swyer-James-MacLeod syndrome is a rare disease characterized by unilateral pulmonary hyperlucency on chest radiography. In this case, Swyer-James-MacLeod syndrome associated with a giant calcified bulla that compressed the patient's left lung was treated with right pneumonectomy.
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Multicenter Study
Drivers of 30- and 90-day Postoperative Death After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation for Esophageal Cancer.
Neoadjuvant chemoradiation, followed by esophagectomy, is a standard of care for locally advanced esophageal cancers. The ChemoRadiOtherapy plus Surgery versus Surgery alone (CROSS) trial reported a 30-day mortality rate of 6%. We sought to evaluate 30- and 90-day mortality in similar patients in the United States and identify predictors of higher mortality rates. ⋯ Postoperative death at 30 and 90 days after neoadjuvant chemoradiation and esophagectomy appears to be on par with randomized data. Positive surgical margins, squamous cell carcinomas, age 69 and older, readmission within 30 days, and conversion from a minimally invasive operation to an open operation all carry a 90-day mortality risk exceeding 10%.
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Data from administrative claims and cancer registries have an ever-expanding role in thoracic surgery health services and health policy research. However, their strengths, limitations, and appropriate applications are often poorly understood, leading to errors in study design and data interpretation. The intent of this review is to discuss relevant and crucial considerations when conducting research with some of the most common national thoracic surgery data sources. ⋯ An appreciation of the strengths, limitations, and differences between various sources of data from administrative, hospital-based, and population-based cancer registries is equally essential for investigators to improve the quality and accuracy of their research and for readers to properly interpret the results of such studies.
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Multicenter Study
Gender Differences in Outcomes After Implantation of Left Ventricular Assist Devices.
Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation has historically been underutilized in women compared with men. It was hypothesized that the introduction of continuous-flow LVADs would lead to more LVAD implantations in women and possibly narrow the gender gap. ⋯ The number of women undergoing LVAD implantation has increased with the introduction of continuous-flow LVADs, but a gender gap still exists. Most major in-hospital outcomes after LVAD implantation are similar between genders.