The use of blood and crystalloid cardioplegia in adult open-heart surgery on postsurgical outcomes: A systematic review of atrial fibrillation incidence, myocardial infarction, inotropic use, length of stay in ICU, and postoperative mortality

Background: Myocardial ischemia can occur due to hypotension, shock, coronary heart disease, and aortic cross-clamping during open-heart surgery using a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. As the cardioprotective method, cardioplegia is classified into blood or crystalloid base. This systematic review is aimed to describe the effectiveness of blood and crystalloid cardioplegic solutions in adult open-heart surgery procedures by focusing on their effects on cardiac enzymes. Materials and Methods: This study investigated the effect of blood and crystalloid cardioplegia on troponin (cTn) and creatinine kinase myocardial bound. The literature search was carried out on several Cochrane, PubMed, PMC, and Google Scholar databases from January 2014 to August 2020 using the MeSH keywords and Boolean operator. Results: We obtained 346 articles and identified six prospective randomized studies from four countries. The majority discussed the comparison of blood cardioplegia and crystalloids in coronary revascularization cardiac surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting). Overall, the articles used have a low risk of bias despite their high level of homogenicity. Conclusions: The current literatures on cardioplegia in adults do not provide adequate advanced-phase trials. Both types of cardioplegia provide a reasonable protection for myocardium. However, several studies reveal that crystalloid cardioplegia increases cardiac enzymes more significantly than blood cardioplegia.