OBJECTIVES: To identify a safety threshold of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) duration; to determine which protection offers the best outcome and whether a 10-min period of cold perfusion (20°C) preceding rewarming can reduce neurological events (NE).
METHODS:From January 1988 to April 2009, 456 patients underwent aortic surgery using DHCA: for chronic disease in 239 and acute in 217. Cerebral protection was obtained by straight DHCA (sDHCA) in 69 cases, retrograde perfusion (RCP) in 198 and antegrade perfusion (ACP) in 189. In 247 subjects, a 10-min period of cold perfusion (20°C) preceded rewarming; in 209 rewarming was restarted without this preliminary.
RESULTS:Fifty-eight patients (13%) experienced NE. Twenty-two (5%) suffered temporary neurological dysfunction (TND) and 36 (8%) suffered stroke. DHCA duration >30 min was predictive for higher rate of NE (25.2% vs. 2.0%, P 0.001); after this value, only ACP was able to reduce incidence of NE (16.5% vs. 30.5%, P = 0.035). Cold reperfusion before rewarming significantly reduced incidence of NE (7.7% vs. 18.7%, P < 0.001) and extended the safe period to 40 min. Thirty-day mortality was 16.0%. Predictors of higher early mortality were acute aortic disease, longer DHCA, lack of ACP or prompt rewarming when DHCA >30 min and postoperative stroke.CONCLUSIONS: sDHCA remains a safe and easy tool for cerebral protection when DHCA duration is expected to be less than 30 min. When aortic surgery requires a longer period, ACP should be instituted. Before rewarming, a 10-min period of cold perfusion significantly reduces incidence of NE.
Objectives: During this unprecedented time of COVID-19 pandemic, it was noticed a decline in cardiovascular cases presentation to the Emergency rooms in many countries, raising many speculations about the reasons and its ramifications. 1-Identify the reasons during this pandemic that refrain patients from seeking medical care and its impact on stress level and medication adherence. 2-Emphasize the new role of virtual medicine. Methods: A quantitative descriptive cross-section survey study of 388 patients. It has been done in the cardiac outpatient department and conducted virtually through telemedicine. Results: Despite this pandemic and its consensuses, the majority of cardiac outpatients will still seek medical advice in case of experiencing symptoms. Nevertheless, the fear of contracting COVID-19 infection, which can alter patient's decisions from visiting the emergency room and the increase in stress level during these challenging times, is genuine and no more an element of guessing. Conclusion: The majority of cardiac outpatients will wisely seek medical advice in case of serious cardiac symptoms and are adherent to their medications during this pandemic. Nevertheless, they face many concerns which need to implement a preventive and helping measures to fight the consensuses of COVID-19 such as, patient educations, establishing a hotline to all patients, telemedicine, new phone applications, and delivering medications to patients are essential in such circumstances to ensure continuity of care.
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