Early Extubation in Children after Cardiac Surgery. Initial Experience from a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mexico City.

Early extubation (EE) in pediatric cardiac surgery has demonstrated important benefits. However, ventilating them for 24 hours or more (delayed decannulation, DD) is an enduring practice. The objectives of this study were to describe the clinical profiles of EE in our setting and analyze its impact and the factors that prolong mechanical ventilation.

[Anticoagulant therapy and cardiopulmonary bypass].

Cardiac surgery is an area in which coagulation monitoring has vital applications. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) procedures could not be performed without an effective method of preventing blood from clotting in the extracorporeal circuit. In the early part of the twentieth century, heparin was discovered to have anticoagulant properties; it remains the anticoagulant most commonly used during CPB.

[Counterpulsation balloon and ventricular support].

There are a number of conditions that give rise to or result from a failing heart and that require assisting or replacing the insufficient or abnormal ventricular function. In addition, in attempting to treat these conditions medically or surgically, a wide range of mechanical assisted ventricular devices has been developed, which can potentially address these conditions. Balloon counterpulsation was first employed clinically in 1968 by Kantrowitz.