from the editor
Opportunity to Do More
By Luis M. Zabala, MD
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Children’s Medical Center, Dallas
Welcome to the summer 2015 edition of the CCAS E-News. I feel incredibly honored to be part of this editorial team and excited for what I truly believe is our finest newsletter to date. The content of this issue is intellectually stimulating and diverse. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Many of us had the opportunity to attend our Ninth Annual Meeting this past March; what a meeting it was! I would like to congratulate Dr. Guzzetta (Program Director), Dr. Twite and Dr. Walker for a job well done. The meeting offered incredible scientific content, great controversial sessions and closed the evening with a wonderful 10th year anniversary celebration. The reward of a work well done is the opportunity to do more*. We look forward for our next meeting. Thank you also to Kim Battle for her managerial skills and making it all work out. To our colleagues who couldn’t make it to the meeting, Dr. Faith Ross from Seattle Children’s Hospital has done a brilliant job of reviewing the meeting for this issue.
As it is customary, this issue offers two exciting articles. The main article comes to us from our colleagues Viviane Nasr et al. from Boston Children’s Hospital, titled “Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS): Uni-ventricular or Bi-ventricular repair”. This excellent review describes the process of ventricular rehabilitation, recruitment and biventricular conversion for a subset of HLHS patients considered as having a borderline left ventricle. This article challenges our way of thinking about the staged palliation for “all” HLHS and reminds us to keep an open mind to surgical innovations when caring for our patients. After all that is what got us here in the first place. Surgical commentaries follow the main piece.
The second article is a well-written and detailed review of the literature on Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and congenital heart disease, from Dr. Rania Abbasi, Riley Hospital for Children’s. This piece is a real treat to read. In addition it provides us with the newest definition from the evolving field of perioperative kidney injury.
Other thought-provoking content includes an update on the CCAS-STS database from Dr. David Vener and a special article from Dr. Susan Nicolson on the Collaborative Learning Process as an instrument for evaluation and dissemination of beneficial practices at a faster pace and lower cost.
The bar has been set high for all things related to CCAS. From the work of our founding leaders to our most recent annual meeting; the energy is present… and there is opportunity to do more. Do not hesitate to contact Dr. Greg Latham, Dr. Nasr or myself with new ideas for our newsletter or website.
Have a great summer!
* Jonas Edward Salk
