Single dose myocardial protection technique utilizing del Nido cardioplegia solution during congenital heart surgery procedures

BACKGROUND: The single dose cardioplegia technique for myocardial protection during congenital heart surgery is a viable alternative to multidose protocols. METHODS: Thirty-four pediatric patients with aortic cross clamp times greater than 90 minutes were grouped by modified adult (MA) multidose solution or del Nido (dN) single dose solution. Also, data from eight patients where the cross clamp times were greater than two hours on one dose of dN solution were included. RESULTS: In the 90-minute plus arm of the study, there were no significant differences between the groups when comparing the risk adjustment for congenital heart surgery (RACHS) (p=0.6), cardiopulmonary bypass times (CPB) (p=0.5), aortic cross camp times (p=0.5), weights (p=0.7) and number of intraoperative exogenous blood units (p=0.5). There were significant differences between the groups (p<0.05) in the number of cardioplegia doses and with perioperative glucose levels. In the greater than two hours group, the incidence of complete heart block (CHB) was 0.125% and there were no deaths or mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices used. CONCLUSION: del Nido cardioplegia solution is a reasonable tool for myocardial protection during congenital heart surgery that significantly decreased the number of cardioplegic interventions and perioperative glucose values in our study groups.