title: Management of giant left atrium in patient undergoing left ventricular assist device placement.
abstract: Giant left atrium in a patient who requires heart transplantation not only poses a significant mortality risk due to compression effect on the surrounding intrathoracic structures but also leads to technical difficulties during transplantation, especially with the left atrial anastomosis. We discuss a case of a patient with a giant left atrium with end-stage valvular cardiomyopathy where simultaneous ventricular assist device placement and left atrium reduction plasty was undertaken as a bridge to cardiac transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Kewal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krishan
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pinney
authors.forename: Anelechi C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Anyanwu
mesh_terms: D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation