AW: [HSF] Deairing the heart

[ICHFNO at aol.com]

I would like to pose the following question as I am not sure how many  
pediatric surgeons are still involved in HSF. How many peds surgeons use CO2 for  
thier intracardiac repairs? Most, if not all of the places where we provide ped  
cardiac surgery do not have CO2. Peds cardiac surgery is for the most part  
intra-cardiac surgery. Also a number of places where we operate also do not 
have  TEE. So for all our intra-cardiac repairs we do not use CO2 and in the vast 
 majority we do not have TEE to assess remnant bubbles. Last year our  
post-operative stroke rate was 1/317 in pump cases. By the way our kids don't  have 
atheroma's for the most part and few if any of the aortic valve or mitral  
valve procedures we perform have calcified leaflets.
 
Bill  

William M  Novick MD
Paul Nemir Jr., MD Professor
International Child Health and  Surgery
University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center
Founder and Medical  Director
International Children's Heart  Foundation

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