Effect of del Nido cardioplegia in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction: A meta-analysis.

Purpose: Research on the safety and efficacy of del Nido cardioplegia in adult patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is limited. We evaluated the effect of del Nido cardioplegia on early outcomes of cardiac surgery in this cohort.

Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched through August 2024 to conduct a meta-analysis comparing del Nido to other cardioplegia in adult patients with reduced LVEF (≤50%). Primary endpoint was early mortality, and secondary endpoints included morbidities, aortic cross-clamp time and postoperative LVEF before discharge. A random-effect model was used to estimate the pooled effect size.

Results: Seven studies met our eligibility criteria, including three propensity score-matched studies with a total of 1160 patients. Conventional blood cardioplegia was used exclusively as a control solution in the included studies. The incidence of early mortality was similar between the del Nido and control groups, with a pooled odds ratio of 0.94 [95% confidence interval: 0.52; 1.71] (p = .822). Postoperative stroke (p = .680), renal failure (p = .832), atrial fibrillation (p = .412), and aortic cross-clamp time (p = .153) were also comparable between the two groups. Postoperative LVEF was significantly higher in the del Nido group compared to the control group, with a standardized mean difference of 0.52 [95% confidence interval: 0.07; 0.96] (p = .034).

Conclusions: In adult patients with reduced LVEF undergoing cardiac surgery, del Nido cardioplegia provides comparable mortality and morbidity rates compared to conventional blood cardioplegic solutions, with the potential to offer protective effects on myocardial function.