European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Nov 1997
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialIschemic preconditioning prior to myocardial protection with cold blood cardioplegia in coronary surgery.
Encouraging results on myocardial preconditioning in experimental models of infarction, stunning or prolonged ischemia raise the question whether preconditioning techniques may enhance conventional cardioplegic protection used for routine coronary surgery. ⋯ Combining ischemic preconditioning and cardioplegic protection with cold blood cardioplegia does not appear to ameliorate myocardial protection when compared to cardioplegic protection applying cold blood cardioplegia alone. Inversely, contractile function seemed to be impaired when applying this protocol of ischemic preconditioning.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Nov 1997
Comparative Study Clinical TrialEvaluation of routine postoperative chest X-rays in the management of the cardiac surgical patient.
To evaluate the role of routine chest X-rays in the management of patients post cardiac surgery. ⋯ Routine chest X-rays post-cardiac surgery are of very little value and patients are adequately managed by performing chest X-rays only when clinically indicated. There was no increased mortality or morbidity attributed to lack of routine chest X-rays in any of these groups. We recommend performing chest X-rays only when clinically indicated in satisfactorily recovering adult cardiac surgical patients.