Surgical correction of complex cardiac malformations that require extended extracorporeal circulation (ECC) increase morbidity/mortality due to water retention and systemic inflammatory reaction. The purpose of this study is to compare the immediate postoperative evolution of patients submitted to conventional ultrafiltration (CUF) during ECC and modified ultrafiltration (MUF) after ECC. Forty-one patients submitted to surgical correction of congenital cardiac disease were divided into 2 groups: G1 - 21 patients with ages from 15 days to 36 months (median 11 months) and weighing from 3.6 kg (M: 7.27 ± 3.07), operated on between 1996 and 1997 were submitted to CUF; G2 - 20 patients with ages ranging from 9 days to 36 months (median 5.5) and weighing from 2.2 to 12 kg (M: 5.7±2.5) operated on between 1997 and 1998 were submitted to CUF + MUF. Among the most frequent surgeries were: ventriculoseptoplasty, 15 (36.58) cases; Jatene's surgery, 10 (24.38) cases; correction of septal A-V defect, 7 (17.08) cases, etc. Statistical analysis regarding age, weight and surgical complexity showed similarity between the groups. There were 6 (28.58) deaths in G1 and 4 (20.08) in G2, p= 0.71. The mean ultrafiltered volume in G1 (CUF) was 143.3 ml and 227.0 ml in G2 (CUF+MUF) p<0.001, showing a statistically significant difference. However, the mean time of mechanical ventilation (G1: 94.8 h and G2: 95.6 h, p= 0.97), mean time of inotropic drug use (G1: 145.2 h and G2: 137.6 h, p=0.85), mean time stay in Intensive Care Unit (G1: 169.6 h and G2: 157.8 h, p= 0.79) and mean time of hospital stay (G1: 14.8 d and G2: 14.6 d, p= 0.95) did not show significant differences between the groups. The CUF technique used for more than 8 years on our Service showed similar results when compared with the CUF + MUF association. MUF was efficient regarding removal of body water after ECC without intercurrent episodes due to the method. Possibly a randomized study on a greater number of patients would allow to detect differences between the two methods.
Heart defects, congenital; Hemofiltration; Extracorporeal circulation
