Perfusion.com Cardiovascular News Roundup:
September 7, 2022
Relevant reading, listening or viewing – curated by the creator of Tiny Perfusion Letter, Luc Puis
Every week, we collect 10 or 20 articles from the peer-reviewed literature that we think will be of interest to the perfusionist community. Feel free to comment on the findings or suggest entries for the newsletter by emailing the Editor – Luc Puis.
We start it off with three reviews: Hyponatremia is a phenomenon that is often encountered during cardiopulmonary bypass, certainly in pediatrics and also with the use of low-sodium cardioplegic solutions. Even mild hyponatremia is associated with increased hospital stay and mortality. Cardiac myxoma’s: the procedure can go quickly, and the outcome is generally very good, but it is always an impressive sight to see. It always needs surgery, because leaving them is life-threatening. Last review is an update on mechanical ventilation during ECMO from some of the biggest experts. De-sedation to allow mobilization, nutrition and faster rehabilitation are the new trends.
Multidisciplinary meetings can be a drag and sometimes more of a one-man-show for one discipline. Unless you do them right, as described in this guide. Although there’s no mention of perfusionists nor anesthesiologists, so what is the multidisciplinary they’re talking about?
COVID-19 is here to stay and investigators from Iran looked into using blood transfusion as a means to improve oxygenation and survival rates in patients with severe COVID-19. They claim it works. Also, how a Letter to the Editor, can turn into a nice update on how to interpret and treat persistent hypoxemia on ECMO for COVID-19 ARDS.
Transplantation is turning into big business and some centers are acting accordingly. While the UNOS network is in need for an overhaul, specialized organ treatment centers are sprouting to life, to improve waitlist mortality and combat the ongoing donor organ shortage. More on isolated organ treatment in a future post on PDC.
In pediatrics, we see an interesting article on the differences and commonalities between venous saturation measurements in the superior and the inferior vena cava and compared with flank and cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy.
To end this roundup, we have two interesting findings on blood groups. We used to have a colleague that was convinced there was a difference in coagulation and even the personality of patients with differing blood groups. While that might have been a nice example of bias, or truth, it apparently does not affect long-term outcomes in cardiac surgery. And lastly, a group in India compared the outcomes of type-and-screen method versus crossmatch in terms of posttransfusion alloimmunization and hemolytic reactions in a group a cardiovascular surgery patients.
Enjoy the read!
Reviews
- Diagnosis and Management of Hyponatremia: A Review
- Cardiac Myxomas: Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis and Management
- Mechanical Ventilation during ECMO: Lessons from Clinical Trials and Future Prospects
Communication
COVID
- Efficacy of Red Blood Cell Exchange as Adjunctive Treatment for Hypoxemia and Survival Rate of Patients with Severe Coronavirus-2 Disease: An Open-Labeled Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial
- Persistent Hypoxemia in COVID-19 Patients on ECMO: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
