The incidence of vasoplegia in adult patients with right-sided congenital heart defects undergoing cardiac surgery and the correlation with serum vasopressin concentrations

Erica D. Wittwer, James J. Lynch, William C. Oliver, Joseph A. Dearani, Harold M. Burkhart, William J. Mauermann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background In adults with right-sided congenital heart disease, vasoplegia during and after cardiopulmonary bypass appears to be a frequent complication. The incidence of vasoplegia in the general adult and pediatric cardiac surgical population has been investigated, but the incidence in adult patients with right-sided congenital heart disease is unknown. Perioperative vasopressin levels during cardiac surgery have been studied in other cardiac surgical patients, but are not known in adults with right-sided congenital heart disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of vasoplegia in adult patients undergoing right-sided cardiac surgical procedures requiring cardiopulmonary bypass and to determine the vasopressin response to cardiac surgery in this population. Methods Twenty patients were enrolled and demographic, hemodynamic, cardiopulmonary bypass, and use of vasoactive medication data were collected. In addition, perioperative serum vasopressin levels were measured. Sixty adult patients undergoing left-sided cardiac surgery served as controls. Results The incidence of vasoplegia in the control patients was 10% and the incidence in the adult patients with right-sided congenital heart disease was 20%. Vasopressin levels were low at baseline (0.5 ± 0.5 pg/mL), increased slightly after induction of anesthesia (0.6 ± 0.6 pg/mL), increased after initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass (99.7 ± 168.2 pg/mL), and decreased after surgery (31.3 ± 43.6 pg/mL). Conclusions This study showed that the incidence of vasoplegia (20%) in patients with right-sided congenital heart disease undergoing cardiac surgery was double that of a population of patients undergoing aortic valve surgery (10%). Serum vasopressin concentration was not associated with vasoplegia in this population of congenital cardiac surgical patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)625-630
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Volume148
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Surgery
  • Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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