Comparison of Blood and Crystalloid Cardioplegia on Patients Operated With Significant Aortic Stenosis. A Prospective Randomized Study.

Myocardial protection during a cardiac arrest is mostly managed with cardioplegia. To day we normally used a blood or crystalloid based solutions. It has been published a lot of papers comparing the too groups with different results. To our knowledge no prospective, randomized study has compared modified St Thomas based Blood and Crystalloid cardioplegia on the acknowledged markers (CK-MB, troponin-T) of myocardial damage during aortic valve replacement on patients without additional significant coronary artery disease.

Methods: 100 patients with aorta stenoses undergoing aortic valve replacement without significant coronary artery stenoses or other significant concomitant heart valve disease were included in the study. They were given antegrade cold blood or cold crystalloid cardioplegia delivered through the coronary Ostia every 20 min throughout the period of aortic cross-clamp. CK-MB and troponin-T were compared between the two groups.