Advances in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery in the COVID-19 Era II

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented problems for all health systems around the world. The severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by this infection (SARS-CoV-2) also affects patients with cardiovascular and thoracic surgical pathology, sometimes worsening their prognosis in the short and immediate term.

Due to lung damage, but also the inflammatory condition generated, the results of the operations in these patients came into question. It has become clear that patients with cardiovascular and thoracic pathology should not be operated on for the duration of the infection and the course of COVID pneumonia.

However, there are situations when these operations cannot be avoided: acute aortic dissection, infectious endocarditis with valvular vegetation at risk of embolism, unstable angina due to surgical coronary lesions, etc.

In these cases, it was considered opportune by some groups to postpone the intervention until the inflammatory syndrome decreased and negative virological test results were obtained.

However, it has been proven that inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, hypercoagulation and the tendency for intravascular thrombosis obscure the prognosis of these patients, especially in elderly patients with associated comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or hypertension.

A link has been shown between the angiotensin 2 conversion enzyme and SARS-CoV-2 in the myocardium, which generates myocarditis with immediate consequences, especially in patients with cardiovascular and thoracic surgical pathology.

In this context, knowing the particularities of these patients and their evolution can generate concepts and guidelines that will improve patient outcomes and decrease mortality.

Given the clinical significance of this topic and its impact on clinical practice and public health, Medicina is launching a Special Issue entitled “Advances in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery in the COVID-19 Era II” with the aim of delivering new insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular management and outcomes for patients with underlying cardiovascular disease.

Prof. Dr. Horaţiu Moldovan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicina is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• cardiothoracic surgery
• vascular surgery
• COVID pneumonia
• cardiovascular disease
• heart valve disease
• acute aortic dissection