Myocardial protection technique structured on cardiac mass.

OBJECTIVE: Myocardial protection is crucial in cardiac surgery: quantification is often difficult as there is a significant mismatch between body weight and heart weight as per geometric remodeling. This study has the objective to compare two groups of patients on the administration of myocardial protection in valvular pathologies: the first group has indexed the administration with left ventricular mass index; the second has indexed it on the body weight or on the body surface area. The primary endpoint of double-blind case-control study is to detect the difference in incidence in terms of post-operative low cardiac output syndrome. METHODS: A single-center double-blind case-control study in a specialized regional tertiary cardiac surgery center in Italy. Between March 2017 and September 2018, 200 adults (100 per Group A vs. Group B) were scheduled for elective procedures: Group A (50 aortic valve replacement-50 mitral valve repair in minimally invasive cardiac surgery) used blood cardioplegic solution with Saint Thomas I solution, with calculation of left ventricular mass index with echocardiographic measures (Formula Group A); Group B (50 aortic valve replacement-50 mitral valve repair in minimally invasive cardiac surgery) used blood cardioplegic solution with Saint Thomas I solution, with calculation indexed on the body surface area, Du Bois Method (Formula Group B). RESULTS: A statistically significant difference was found for Student's t-test in patients who used myocardial indexed protection on left ventricular mass index versus control: aortic valve replacement procedures in aortic valve stenosis-ejection fraction (24 hours, p-value = 0.046), TnT (24 hours, p-value = 0.047), stroke volume shift (24 hours, p-value = 0.043), and infusion of epinephrine after cardiopulmonary bypass (p-value = 0.033); aortic valve replacement procedures in aortic valve insufficiency-ejection fraction (24 hours, p-value = 0.044), TnT (24 hours, p-value = 0.047), stroke volume shift (24 hours, p-value = 0.046), and infusion of Epinephrine after cardiopulmonary bypass (p-value = 0.029). No statistically significant differences in patients undergoing mitral valve repair surgery. CONCLUSION: The study group in the aortic valve surgery that administered myocardial protection indexed for the left ventricular mass index and showed a statistically significant lower incidence for post-operative low cardiac output syndrome compared to the control group.