The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialBiocompatibility of heparin-coated extracorporeal bypass circuits: a randomized, masked clinical trial.
Cardiopulmonary bypass circuits cause morbidity during cardiac operations. Plasma proteins and cellular components are stimulated by contact with the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit and can cause bleeding and postperfusion syndrome. This is especially true in patients undergoing reoperative cardiac procedures, which carries a higher risk of postoperative bleeding and prolonged ventilation compared with primary cardiac surgical procedures. ⋯ Both groups had similar heparin and protamine administration, blood transfusions, postoperative alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient, time to extubation, length of intensive care unit stay, and overall morbidity and mortality. Clinical outcome and blood loss did not differ between the groups. We conclude that heparin-coated cardiopulmonary bypass circuits did not improve biochemical or clinical markers of biocompatibility in a reoperative patient population.
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialLow-dose and high-dose aprotinin improve hemostasis in coronary operations.
Prophylactic aprotinin therapy has become a popular method to reduce bleeding associated with cardiac operations. Today essentially two dose regimens are used, a high-dose regimen with administration throughout the complete operative procedure and a low-dose regimen with administration only during bypass. In unblinded studies both regimens were found to be equally effective. ⋯ The observation that low-dose aprotinin significantly improved hemostasis but did not inhibit hyperfibrinolysis supports our previous finding that low-dose aprotinin mainly protects platelet adhesive function. The better result obtained with high-dose aprotinin may indicate the contribution of hyperfibrinolysis to bleeding after cardiopulmonary bypass. Because high-dose aprotinin is administered outside the period of full heparinization and might therefore increase the risk of thromboembolic complications, we propose a modification of the low-dose schedule to increase aprotinin levels sufficient for plasmin inhibition before release of the aortic crossclamp.
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialLeukocyte depletion results in improved lung function and reduced inflammatory response after cardiac surgery.
Leukocyte depletion during cardiopulmonary bypass has been demonstrated in animal experiments to improve pulmonary function. Conflicting results have been reported, however, with clinical depletion by arterial line filter of leukocytes at the beginning of cardiopulmonary bypass. In this study, we examined whether leukocyte depletion from the residual heart-lung machine blood at the end of cardiopulmonary bypass would improve lung function and reduce the postoperative inflammatory response. ⋯ After operation, pulmonary gas exchange function (arterial oxygen tension at a fraction of inspired oxygen of 0.4) was significantly higher in the leukocyte-depletion group 1 hour after arrival to the intensive care unit (p < 0.05) and after extubation (p < 0.05). There were no statistical differences between the two groups with respect to postoperative circulating platelet levels and blood loss, and no infections were observed during the whole period of hospitalization. These results suggest that leukocyte depletion of the residual heart-lung machine blood improves postoperative lung gas exchange function and is safe for patients who are expected to have a severe inflammatory response after heart operations.
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 1996
Comparative StudyApplicability of intermittent global ischemia for repeat coronary artery operations.
Despite the increasing popularity of cardioplegic techniques there is no consensus as to the optimal myocardial protective technique for first-time or repeat coronary artery bypass grafting. Intermittent global ischemia was used in 159 consecutive patients (142 male; 17 female) undergoing repeat coronary artery bypass grafting during a 6-year period (1987 to 1992). The median age of the patients was 60 years (90% confidence interval: 47 to 70 years) and the median interval from the first operation was 9 years (90% confidence interval: 2 to 14 years). ⋯ Eight patients died in the follow-up period, which resulted in an estimated survival of 80% at 5 years. At a mean follow-up period of 2 years (and with or without antianginal medication) 83% of patients had no or minimal angina, 12% had angina on moderate exertion, and 5% had angina on minimal exertion. In comparison with other current series of repeat coronary revascularization our results suggest that repeat coronary artery bypass grafting can be done with intermittent global ischemia with early and intermediate results at least equivalent to those obtained with cardioplegic methods.
-
J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 1996
Prognostic factors and long-term results after thymoma resection: a series of 307 patients.
Three hundred seven cases of patients who underwent operation for thymoma (196 of whom had myasthenia gravis) were analyzed to assess the prognostic values of Masaoka clinical staging, completeness of resection, histologic classification, history of myasthenia gravis, and postoperative radiotherapy. According to the Masaoka staging system, 135 thymomas were stage I, 70 were stage II, 83 were stage III, and 19 were stage IV. According to the Verley and Hollmann histologic classification system, 67 thymomas were type 1, 77 were type 2, 139 were type 3, and 24 were type 4. ⋯ We did not find any significant difference with respect to disease-free survival between patients who had postoperative radiotherapy and those who did not. In multivariate analysis, the sole significant prognostic factor was completeness of resection. On the basis of these findings, a new clinical-pathologic staging system is proposed.