Del Nido cardioplegia in adult cardiac surgery: beyond single-valve surgery.

Abstract

In recent years, the use of del Nido (DN) cardioplegia has been reported in single-valve surgery or isolated coronary artery bypass surgery with acceptable outcomes. The reports of its use in more complex adult cardiac procedures, however, have been scarce. We enrolled a total of 149 adult patients who underwent heart valve surgery with the use of DN cardioplegia between May 2014 and December 2016. For a benchmark comparison, 892 patients who underwent cardiac valve surgery with blood cardioplegia during the same period served as controls. To reduce selection bias, propensity score matching was used; the inverse probability of treatment weighting method was performed for further validations. Overall, 57.7% of patients in the DN group underwent multiple or complex cardiac procedures. Early mortality rates were 0.7% and 2.4% in the DN and blood groups, respectively (P = 0.31). Propensity score matching yielded 111 pairs of patients who were well balanced for all 23 measured baseline covariates. In the matched cohort, the postoperative peak troponin I levels (P = 0.004) and the aortic clamping times (P < 0.001) were significantly lower and shorter compared with those in the blood group. There were no significant differences in early mortality rates (1.9% vs 0%, P > 0.99), low cardiac output (P = 0.57) and neurological events (P = 0.21). The quantities of postoperative transfusions (P = 0.008) and fluid supplements (P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the matched DN group compared with the blood group. The use of DN in adult valve surgery including complex procedures may confer acceptable outcomes comparable to or even superior to those obtained with the use of blood cardioplegia.