A pilot study of Bifidobacterium breve in neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.

Background: Probiotics have currently been widely used in patients undergoing various types of surgeries and improved their clinical outcomes, while data in pediatric cardiac surgery have been lacking. We investigated the safety and effects on the intestinal microbiota of the probiotic Bifidobacterium breve in neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.

Methods: This pilot, randomized study was performed in a single-center, university hospital-based pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Hyperventilation versus standard ventilation for infants in postoperative care for congenital heart defects with pulmonary hypertension.

Purpose: In infants undergoing surgery for cardiac defects with left-to-right shunt, a hyperventilation strategy has been applied to prevent pulmonary hypertensive crisis (PHC). Hyperventilation with a large tidal volume and/or higher airway pressure, however, may be detrimental to the lung. This randomized study compared the effects of hyperventilation versus standard ventilation.

Perioperative amino acid infusion improves recovery and shortens the duration of hospitalization after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

Perioperative amino acid infusion helps maintain core temperature and improves patient outcomes after gynecologic and orthopedic surgery. In the present study we prospectively determined the effect of amino acid infusion on esophageal core temperature and postoperative outcomes during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). One-hundred-eighty consecutive patients undergoing primary elective or urgent off-pump CABG were randomly divided into two groups: the i.