Warm Blood Cardioplegia for Myocardial Protection: Concepts and Controversies

Despite a long history and ample evidence in the medical literature, warm blood cardioplegia remains a complex and controversial topic. Many surgeons hesitate to adopt this technique because of their perceived ambiguity about its effectiveness in complex procedures or their uncertainty regarding technique. This review describes the physiologic basis for warm blood cardioplegia in adult cardiac surgery and outlines the current basic and clinical research that evaluates the usefulness of this technique when compared with cold blood and crystalloid cardioplegia.