Ultrafiltration in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: An Observational Cohort Study

The Optimal Ultrafiltration Protocol in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: An Observational Cohort Study

Infants and children undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) can experience systemic inflammation that prolongs post-operative recovery. Ultrafiltration is an intra-opreative technique that is hypothesized to extract circulating inflammatory mediators during the CPB time. There have been only a few small studies looking at a limited number of inflammatory marker profiles in this context. Our institution uses an innovative form of ultrafiltration "subzero-balance simple-modified ultrafiltration" (SBUF-SMUF) throughout the entire CPB time. SBUF-SMUF has been our standard of care for the last 5 years. This observational seeks to describe the clinical and immunologic outcomes of infants and children undergoing cardiac surgery with CBP and SBUF-SMUF.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Congenital cardiac patients (< 30kg) that have been consented to a planned cardiac surgery procedure requiring cardiopulmonary bypass at the IWK Health Centre.
• Patient or family consent to participate in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient or family refusal to participate.
• Known genetic syndrome with multi-organ abnormalities and immune dysfunction such as DiGeorge Syndrome, Trisomy 18 or 13, Noonan syndrome.
• Known immunodeficiency syndrome or bone marrow pathology.
• Severe liver disease with abnormal synthetic liver function tests.