Superiority of blood cardioplegia over asanguinous cardioplegia--an experimental and clinical study.

This study compares experimental and clinical results using both an asanguinous and sanguinous vehicle for delivering the cardioplegic solution. Animals receiving blood cardioplegia had better left ventricular function after unclamping, significantly less post-ischemic myocardial edema, and a better ability to augment flow and oxygen consumption. Patients receiving blood cardioplegia had also better myocardial performance with high cardiac outputs and lower left atrial pressure, and showed less evidence of myocardial damage. We conclude that oxygenation of the cardioplegic solution provides superior myocardial protection to that seen when the same solution is used in an asanguinous vehicle.