The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery
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J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. · Aug 2018
Observational StudyLower risk of postoperative arrhythmias in congenital heart surgery following intraoperative administration of magnesium.
Postoperative arrhythmias are common in children undergoing congenital heart surgery. We evaluated whether intraoperative administration of magnesium was associated with a reduced occurrence of specific postoperative arrhythmias, as has been described previously, or had a broader effect on multiple arrhythmia types, and whether there existed a dose-effect of intraoperative magnesium. ⋯ As many as one third of our patients undergoing congenital heart surgery had postoperative arrhythmias. Use of intraoperative magnesium was associated with a reduction in the odds of occurrence of all postoperative arrhythmias. Our results do not provide evidence that a greater dose of magnesium is associated with greater arrhythmia risk reduction. Despite the intraoperative use of magnesium, there continued to be a high residual incidence of postoperative arrhythmias, raising the question for studying new or additional agents.