Surgery for arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, pericardial disease, cardiac tumors, and trauma, and intraoperative echocardiography

This brief review highlights some of the advances made in selected areas of cardiac surgery over the past year, including surgery for arrhythmias, complications of myocardial infarction, pericardial disease, cardiac tumors, and trauma. In the treatment of arrhythmias, surgery for supraventricular arrhythmias and ventricular tachycardias is discussed, as is the role of the automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator in the surgical treatment of ventricular tachycardias. The usefulness of intraoperative echocardiography in evaluating valve disease, valve defects, and the results of surgical repair of atrioventricular septal defects is also discussed. The impact of these exciting developments can be expected to continue over the next several years.