Case Reports in Heart Surgery: 2026

Cardiac surgery continues to evolve through innovation, refined technique, and improved perioperative care. Yet many of the most instructive advances still come from single patients - cases that challenge expectations, reveal uncommon pathology, or show surprising responses to treatment. Well-documented case reports remain a practical way to share these lessons, especially when a presentation is rare, atypical, or prompts a change in clinical thinking.This Research Topic - the 2026 volume of “Case Reports in Heart Surgery” - aims to compile a broad collection of high-quality case reports submitted to the Cardiovascular Surgery section. Submissions should highlight clinical scenarios that add clear educational value for surgeons and the wider multidisciplinary team, such as unexpected diagnoses, unusual perioperative or postoperative courses, novel technical solutions, or meaningful outcomes following non-standard approaches.We welcome case reports that include (but are not limited to) the following categories:• Rare cardiac cases with typical features (uncommon disease, classic presentation)• Common cardiac conditions with atypical features (unexpected anatomy, symptoms, imaging, or course)• Convincing responses to new or non standard treatments, including carefully justified off label use in a single patientSubmissions may address themes such as:• Rare or under recognized cardiac or great vessel pathologies relevant to surgery• Atypical presentations or misleading diagnostic workups in common conditions• Intraoperative decision-making in challenging anatomy or redo surgery• Postoperative complications, rescue strategies, or unexpected recovery trajectories• Innovative technical adaptations (including device-related, hybrid, or minimally invasive approaches)• Multidisciplinary management (e.g., surgery–cardiology–ICU coordination)• Patient safety, ethics, and decision-making in high-risk or experimental scenariosArticle submissions should adhere to the specified format guidelines, including a detailed case description and supplementary figure or table to provide a comprehensive view of the patient's care timeline. Authors should follow the CARE guidelines and submit a completed CARE checklist as a supplementary file (template available here: https://www.care-statement.org/checklist).Previous volumes in this Research Topic series:Exploring New Frontiers in Heart Surgery: Case Studies 2025Case Reports in Heart Surgery: 2024Case Reports in Heart Surgery: 2023 Topic editors: Ayman Elbadawi, Giuseppe Gatti Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78167/case-reports-in-heart-surgery-2026