Warm blood cardioplegia has been an established cardioplegic method since the 1990s, yet it remains controversial in regard to myocardial protection. This review will describe the physiologic and technical concepts behind warm blood cardioplegia, as well as outline the current basic and clinical research that evaluates its usefulness. Controversies regarding this technique will also be reviewed. A long history of experimental data indicates that warm blood cardioplegia is safe and effective and thus suitable myocardial protection during cardiopulmonary bypass surgeries.
Keywords: Cardioplegic solutions/administration & dosage/therapeutic use; heart arrest, induced/methods; heart/physiopathology; myocardial reperfusion injury/prevention & control; myocardial reperfusion/methods; randomized controlled trials as topic; temperature; treatment outcome; ventricular function.
© 2020 by the Texas Heart® Institute, Houston.