Perfusion deficits with retrograde warm blood cardioplegia

Does antegrade blood cardioplegia alone provide adequate myocardial protection in patients with left main stem disease?

“…In the warm arrested state, these regional deficits could result in metabolically active myocardium, with subsequent inadequate oxygen, substrate delivery, and warm ischemia. 25 Conversely, some authors 26,27 have demonstrated that retrograde cardioplegia delivery compared with antegrade cardioplegia delivery is associated with similar right ventricle performance, and that there are no differences in outcome, hemodynamic indices, or enzyme data.…”

Alternate antegrade/retrograde perfusion: an effective technique to preserve hypertrophied hearts during valvular surgery☆

“…Therefore, NIRS imaging was used in this study to monitor myocardial oxygenation. We found that the four RP episodes of A A/R P resulted in a greater MO decrease in the RV wall than in LV wall due to the inability of RP to perfuse the RV wall [21]. Decrease in RV's MO was not accumulative (Fig.…”

Right ventricular function after cardiac surgery: the diagnostic and prognostic role of echocardiography

“…The types of cardioplegia differ also for delivery method and temperature. Retrograde cardioplegia is an established method of myocardial protection [38][39][40], based on the concept that distribution of an antegrade-delivered cardioplegia might be impaired in [41,42], the extreme variability of cardiac venous system anatomy, and the insufficient capillary flow due to the large amount of cardioplegic solution delivered into the RV through the Thebesian system [43].…”