Luke warm blood cardioplegia for CAB surgery in patients with severely impaired LV function. Improved results

Ward blood cardioplegia (WBC) has recently been reported to improve myocardial protection in adult open heart surgery, especially in high risk cases. However, WBC has been reported to have some disadvantages including narrow safety margins concerning brain and kidney perfusion. We therefore modified our technique to utilize luke-warm blood cardioplegia (LWBC). We carried out 470 open heart procedures using luke-warm cardioplegia (anterograde + retrograde perfusion) from 1/2/1991 - 30/9/1992; 94 had LVEF30% and form the basis of this study. Other major risk factors in this group included:70 yrs - 26 patients, L main50% - 14 patients, emergencies - 11 patients, redo's - 3 patients. Eightyone patients underwent CAB only; 3 had additional MVR, 3 additional closure acute VSD of whom one underwent additional LV aneurysmectomy, one additional AVR; 4 patients underwent AVR only, and 2 MVR. Average number of grafts/patient for the 81 isolated CAB's was 4.5. IABP was necessary postbypass in 4 patients (9 emergencies were on IABP support at time of operation). Thirty day mortality was 3 patients (3.2%). Late mortality was 5 cases. These results are superior to those achieved using cold protection and warm blood cardioplegia. LWBC is a safe method for myocardial protection in patients undergoing CAB, particularly when LV function is severely compromised.