title: Murphy's law in cardiac surgery.
abstract: We report the case of a 41-year-old man who underwent heart transplantation after suffering from aortic dissection during the implantation of a biventricular assist device for heart failure after coronary artery bypass grafting. The biventricular assist device had to be operated by hand for 10 hours because of a technical defect. In the end perseverance won out and the patient is now doing well at 2.5 years of follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kenn
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Silber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D004868:Equipment Failure; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016896:Treatment Outcome