Congenital heart disease
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Congenital heart disease · Mar 2012
Preoperative management in patients with single-ventricle physiology.
Advancements in the preoperative management of patients with single-ventricle physiology continue to evolve. Previous reports have questioned the benefit of using inhaled nitrogen in single-ventricle patients, suggesting that this therapeutic modality may not provide adequate systemic cardiac output. The objective of this study was to review our institutional experience managing preoperative patients with single-ventricle physiology using a combination of afterload reduction and inhaled hypoxemic therapy. ⋯ Our results suggest that a combination of afterload reduction and hypoxemic therapy was able to maintain an appropriate distribution of the cardiac output in the majority of preoperative patients with single-ventricle physiology. An adequate balance of systemic and pulmonary blood flow was successfully achieved with an increase in arterial PaO2 values.