Pediatric myocardial protection: an overview.

This article describes the experimental infrastructure and subsequent successful clinical application of a comprehensive bypass and cardioplegic strategy that limits intraoperative injury and improves postoperative outcomes in pediatric patients. The infant heart is at high risk of damage from poor protection because of preoperative hypertrophy, cyanosis, and ischemia. The background factors of vulnerability to damage caused by cyanosis and ischemia are discussed, together with studies of the infrastructure of strategies to use normoxia versus hyperoxia as bypass starts, white blood cell filtration, warm induction and reperfusion with substrate enhancements, multidose blood cardioplegia, and an integrated approach to allow ischemia only when vision is needed in pediatric surgeries. Data on cardioplegic management, including reducing calcium, increasing magnesium, and reducing perfusion pressure are shown, as used during this technique. These principles were applied to a consecutive series of 567 patients at the Heart Institute for Children and University of Illinois hospital over a 2-year period. Included also were 72 patients with hypoplastic left heart over a 4-year period with this myocardial management strategy. Application of these concepts may improve the safety of protection in infant hearts.