Heart-lung machine and the influence of corticosteroids

Particular focus is on corticosteroids to reduce this systemic inflammation and whether their use offers benefits in terms of morbidity and mortality. Although corticosteroids showed no survival benefit in several large randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses, positive effects were demonstrated, e.g. with regard to postoperative lung failure, so that even now scientific questions remain open.

Literature

Perchermeier, S., Tassani-Prell, P. The Use of Corticosteroids for Cardiopulmonary BypassA vascular bridge. A bypass is used to circumvent narrowed sections of blood vessels. This allows organs to be supplied with sufficient blood again, for example. in Adults. Curr Anesthesiol Rep; 11:292-297 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40140-021-00468-z

Tassani P, Richter JA, Barankay A et al. Does high-dose methylprednisolone in aprotinin-treated patients attenuate the systemic inflammatory response during coronary artery bypass grafting procedures? J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 1999, 13:165-72.

Contact

Working Group P. Tassani-Prell (Institute of Anaesthesiology, German Heart Centre Munich)

E-mail: tassani@dhm.mhn.de