The crystalloid cardioplegia: advantages with a word of caution.

Technical success and absence of iatrogenic injury from inadequate myocardial protection are the foremost targets of every cardiac surgical procedure. The current trends of pediatric cardiac surgery are aimed to achieve definitive repair of complex cardiac defects at birth as to avoid the risks related with palliative surgery and to reduce the long term impact of the untreated defect on the cardiac function. Thus, even newborn patients are exposed to a prolonged time of myocardial ischemia. The aim of this paper is to describe the impact of crystalloid HKT Custodiol cardioplegia infusion on myocardial protection in the early and late outcome of newborn patients who underwent arterial switch operation (ASO) for transposition of the great arteries (TGA).