Del Nido Cardioplegia for patients of adult congenital heart disease.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of del Nido cardioplegia for patients of adult congenital heart diseases undergoing cardiac surgery. Study Design: Descriptive Observational Case Series. Setting: Department of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology, Faisalabad. Period: October 2019 to September 2021. Material & Methods: All consecutive patients of age fifteen years or above who underwent open-heart surgery for congenital heart disease by using ante grade del Nido cardioplegia during the study period were included. Dedicated hospital database used to retrieve the data of patients regarding type of surgery for CHD and operative or postoperative outcome parameters. The data was entered in excel sheet and descriptive analysis done. Results: One hundred and twenty five patients underwent open heart bypass surgery for congenital heart disease by using del Nido cardioplegia during the study period. Majority of patients were male (n=83, 66.4%) with male to female ratio 1.97:1. Sixty eight percent were less than thirty years of age. Primary repair of TOF was the most frequently performed surgery (49.6%, n=62) while 28.8% had repair of VSD. Average bypass time was 136 ±57 minutes and average cross clamp time of 103 ± 44 minutes. Total duration of mechanical ventilation was 6.6 ±11.9 hours, ICU stay of 38 ±34 hours and stay in the hospital of 5.2 ± 2.6 days. Cardiac tamponade was seen in 0.8% of patients (n=1) while moderate LV systolic dysfunction in 1.6 % of patients. Conclusion: Del Nido cardioplegia solution is as safe as conventional blood cardioplegia with short ventilation time, ICU stay and lowest postoperative complications.