In the last 2 decades, there have been significant advances in medical treatment of heart failure. However, there is a group of patients who are refractory to the available medical therapy and progress inevitably to a state of end-stage heart failure, whose only therapeutic alternative is cardiac transplantation. But this is an option limited by the scarce availability of donors. Therefore many patients die waiting for an organ. Recently, extra or intracorporeal left ventricular devices have emerged as a viable alternative for patients with end-stage heart failure waiting for a heart transplant. These devices discharge the left ventricle, increasing cardiac output and improving systemic perfusion. This year, in our hospital we began a left ventricular device implantation program for the most severely ill patients on the waiting list for cardiac transplantation. We report two males aged 30 and 53 years, in whom a left ventricular device was successfully implanted, using a minimally invasive surgical technique developed at the University of Hannover in Germany.

Neste trabalho é apresentado um caso de coexistência de aterosclerose aorto-ilíaca com rim em ferradura, em um homem com 57 anos de idade. O diagnóstico desta combinação rara foi feito pouco antes da cirurgia, com a angio-ressonância magnética constituindo o método diagnóstico pré-operatório mais importante para o planejamento cirúrgico. A abordagem transabdominal proporciona uma exposição excelente da aorta abdominal em pacientes com rim em ferradura, sem risco de lesão das artérias renais acessórias ou de ureter em posição anômala. A reconstrução foi feita com a implantação de uma prótese de Dacron em Y em posição aorto-bifemoral e, por causa da lesão aterosclerótica difusa e na presença do rim em ferradura, foi optado por anastomose proximal término-lateral.

Coexistence of aortoiliac arteriosclerosis with horseshoe kidney in a 57-year-old man is presented. Diagnosis of this unusual combination was made shortly before surgery. Magnetic resonance angiography is the most important preoperative diagnostic tool for surgical planning. A transabdominal approach provides excellent exposure of the abdominal aorta in patients with a horseshoe kidney without risk of injury to renal accessory arteries or to a ureter in an anomalous position. Implantation of an aorto-bifemoral Y prosthesis was made using a Dacron bifurcation. By diffuse atherosclerotic lesion and in presence of horseshoe kidney, an end-to-side proximal anastomosis of the aorta was carried out.