Michel Durand

Background: Extubation strategy in extracorporeal life support patients remains unclear, and literature only reports studies with significant biases. Objectives: To explore the prognostic impact of an early ventilator‐weaning strategy in assisted patients after controlling for confounding factors. Methods: A 10‐year retrospective study included 241 patients receiving extracorporeal life support for at least 48 h, corresponding to a total of 977 days spent on assistance. The a priori probability of extubation for each day of assistance was calculated according to daily biological examinations, drug doses, clinical observations, and admission data to pair each day containing an extubation with one on which the patient was not extubated. The primary outcome was survival at day 28. The secondary outcomes were survival at day 7, respiratory infections, and safety criteria. Results: Two similar cohorts of 61 patients were generated. Survival at day 28 was better in patients extubated under assistance in univariate and multivariate (HR = 0.37 [0.2–0.68], p ‐value = 0.002) analyses. Patients who underwent failed early extubation did not have a different prognosis from those without early extubation. Successful early extubation was associated with a better outcome than a failed or no attempt at early extubation. Survival at day 7 and the rate of respiratory infections were better in early‐extubated patients. Safety data did not differ between the two groups. Conclusions: Early extubation during assistance was associated with a superior outcome in our propensity‐matched cohort study. The safety data were reassuring. However, due to the lack of prospective randomized studies, the causality remains uncertain.

Background: High preoperative fibrinogen levels are associated with reduced bleeding rates after cardiac surgery. Fibrinogen is directly involved in inflammatory processes and is a cardiovascular risk factors. Whether high fibrinogen levels before cardiac surgery are a risk factor for mortality or morbidity remains unclear. Aims: This study aimed to examine the association between preoperative fibrinogen levels and mortality and morbidity rates after cardiac surgery. Settings and Design: This is a single-center retrospective study. Material and Methods: Patients (n = 1628) were divided into high (HFGr) and normal (NFGr) fibrinogen level groups, based on the cutoff value of 3.3 g/L, derived from the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The primary outcome was the 30-day mortality rate. The rates of postoperative complications, including postoperative bleeding and transfusion rates, were examined. Statistical Analysis: Between-group comparisons were performed with the Mann–Whitney U test and Chi-squared test, as suitable. Model discriminative power was examined with the area under the ROC curve. Results: The HFGr and NFGr included 1103 and 525 patients, respectively. Mortality rate was higher in the HFGr than in the NFGr (2.7% vs. 1.1%, P = 0.04). The 12-h bleeding volume (280 mL [195–400] vs. 305 mL [225–435], P = 0.0003) and 24-h bleeding volume values (400 mL [300–550] vs. 450 mL [340–620], P < 0.0001) were lower in the HFGr than in the NFGr. However, the rate of red blood cell transfusion during hospitalization was higher in the HFGr than in the NFGr (21.7% vs. 5.9%, P = 0.0103). Major complications were more frequent in the HFGr than in the NFGr. Conclusion: High fibrinogen levels were associated with reduced postoperative bleeding volume and increased mortality and morbidity rates.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the new EuroSCORE (ES) 2 prediction model in high-risk patients with the 2 other oldest additive ES (aES) and logistic ES (lES). Methods: Consecutive adult patients undergoing all cardiac surgery except heart transplantation and left ventricular assist device were included. The 3 risk scores were collected before surgery. We defined 4 high-risk groups of patients, patients ≥80 years, combined cardiac surgery, surgery of the thoracic aorta, and emergency cardiac surgery, and 2 low-risk groups, valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery. The predicted value of each score has been assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC). Results: The study had included 3301 patients. Thirty-day mortality was 3.9% (95% confidence interval (CI), 3.3 − 4.6%). The AUC of ES2 was 0.81 (0.77 − 0.84), 0.82 (0.78 − 0.85), 0.70 (0.64 − 0.76), 0.79 (0.74 − 0.83), 0.85 (0.83 − 0.87), and 0.88 (0.86 − 0.90) for octogenarians, thoracic aortic surgery, combined surgery, emergency surgery, coronary surgery, and valve surgery, respectively. These ES2 AUC values were higher than those obtained with the aES for octogenarians, and with the lES for octogenarians and valve surgery. The ES2 calibration was better than the aES and lES calibration for the whole population, and low-risk groups. The ES2 calibration was superior to aES and lES in high-risk groups, except for octogenarians and thoracic aortic surgery compared to lES. Conclusion: In high-risk cardiac surgery patients, ES2 only marginally improve the predicted 30-day mortality in comparison to other ES.

Background: Myocardial damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery increases both morbidity and mortality. Different protective strategies dealing with either preconditioning or postconditioning or assessing a single aspect of cardioprotection have shown conflicting results. We tested the hypothesis that a multimodal approach would improve cardioprotection and limit myocardial damage following cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Methods: This study is a pragmatic multicenter (six French institutions), prospective, randomized, single-blinded, controlled trial. The randomization is stratified by centers. In the study, 210 patients scheduled for aortic valve surgery with or without coronary artery bypass grafting will be assigned to a control or a treatment group (105 patients in each group). In the control group, patients receive total intravenous anesthesia with propofol and liberal intraoperative blood glucose management (initiation of insulin infusion when blood glucose, measured every 60 min, is greater than 180 mg/dl), as a standard of care. The treatment group receives a bundle of care combining five techniques of cardioprotection: (1) remote ischemic preconditioning applied before aortic cross-clamping; (2) maintenance of anesthesia with sevoflurane; (3) tight intraoperative blood glucose management (initiation of insulin infusion when blood glucose, measured every 30 min, is greater than 140 mg/dl); (4) moderate respiratory acidosis (pH 7.30) at the end of cardiopulmonary bypass; and (5) a gentle reperfusion protocol following aortic unclamping. The primary outcome is myocardial damage measured by postoperative 72-h area under the curve of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I. Discussion: The ProCCard study will be the first multicenter randomized controlled trial aiming to assess the role of a bundle of care combining several cardioprotective strategies to reduce myocardial damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03230136. Registered on July 26, 2017. Last updated on April 17, 2019.