The heart must be stopped and a clamp must be place on the aorta to do the majority of heart surgeries.
Body circulation is made by cardiopulmonary bypass during the time the aorta has a clamp.
Blood is taken to the heart-lung pump by means of cannula placed on pipe veins and oxygenated and given to the distal of the aorta clamp under the desired pressure.
The heart remains ischemic during the time a clamp is placed on the aorta.
Numerous methods are defined under the myocardial protection heading for this ischemia not to affect heart functions negatively.
One of the most frequently used myocardial protection strategies consists of heart cooling and keeping it under diastolic arrest.
Basal metabolism slows down this way, oxygen consumption of the heart drops and as a result, its tolerance to ischemia improves.
The general name of solutions used to stop the heart at diastole is “cardioplegia”.
The most important and efficient cardioplegia solution used today is Bretschneider histidine-tryptophane-ketoglutarate HTK) solution.
Bretschneider HTK solution is commonly used as an organ perfusion solution in organ transplantation surgeries as well.
There are studies suggesting that this solution is superior to a similar solution of St. Thomas Hospital in terms of its clinical outcome
Documents
