Ventricular function after normothermic versus hypothermic cardioplegia. Discussion

Warm cardioplegia produces by essentially continuous infusion has been used as an alternative to traditional cold intermittent infusion techniques during cardiac surgery, but its effects on postoperative left ventricular function have not been defined. We performes a randomizes clinical trial to assess the effects of warm and cold blood cardioplegia on load-independent indices of ventricular function. Fifty-three patients were randomized to warm (n=27) or cold (n=26) cardioplegia. Myocardial oxygen consumption, lactate production, adenine nucleotides, and adenine nucleotide degradation products were measures during cardioplegia and reperfusion