Tapia's syndrome is a rare complication following cardiac surgery. It includes the extracranial involvement of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the hypoglossal nerve and results in ipsilateral paralysis of the vocal cord and the tongue. It is usually a complication related to anaesthesia and positioning of the head of the patient during surgery. We describe this rare complication which occurred at our institute. A 49-year old man developed Tapia's syndrome after an uneventful coronary artery bypass surgery. He complained of dysphonia, hoarseness of voice and an inability to swallow soon after extubation. The syndrome resolved completely over the following weeks with no neurological deficit.

Stabilizer devices have revolutionized off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. They stabilize the myocardial wall locally and allow the surgeon to accurately place anastomotic sutures without the need of establishing CPB and without much compromise in patient hemodynamics. We report here an unusual complication of an intramyocardial dissecting hematoma with epicardial rupture caused after using the Octopus 3 stabilizer.

A 39-year-old male was referred to our service for treatment of an asymptomatic mediastinal mass. The mass was detected on a routine pre-employment chest X-ray. CT scan showed a well-defined soft tissue mass measuring 7.5× 5.5×5.3 cm in close relation to the right border of the heart. A CT-guided biopsy proved to be inconclusive as necrotic tissue was obtained. At exploratory thoracotomy, a well-defined cyst was found attached to the right side of the pericardium. The cyst was totally excised and sent for histopathological examination which came back with a surprise diagnosis of epidermoid cyst.

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In a 30-year-old man with tuberculous pericardial effusion and symptoms of constrictive pericarditis, 2-D echocardiography indicated localized effusion. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging showed the effusion to be posterior and compressing the left ventricle. Guided by this information, pericardial resection with drainage of tuberculous abscess was performed via left anterior thoracotomy.