A Randomized Trial of Outcomes of Anesthetic Management Directed to Very Early Extubation After Cardiac Surgery in Children

Objectives Intraoperative management directed to early extubation of children undergoing cardiac surgery has been suggested as a viable alternative to prolonged postoperative mechanical ventilation. The authors evaluated the safety and efficacy of this approach in a randomized prospective trial. Design A prospective randomized observational study. Setting A single university-affiliated hospital. Participants One hundred consecutive pediatric patients (age 1 month-15 years, weight 3.0-51 kg) requiring cardiac surgery. Patients younger than 1 month of age and those requiring mechanical ventilation before the operation were considered ineligible for the study. Interventions Patients were randomly allocated to a group with anesthetic management and extubation in the operating room (early group [EG]) and a group with elective prolonged mechanical ventilation (control group [CG]). Measurements and Main Results A difference in outcome as reflected by the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and hospital lengths of stay and postoperative morbidity and mortality was analyzed. A separate analysis was performed in children younger than 3 years old. The extubation time in the CG was 25.0 ± 26.9 hours. No differences in mortality, the need for re-exploration for bleeding, the need for reintubation, the incidence of abnormal chest radiographic findings, or cardiac and septic complications between groups were found. PICU and postoperative hospital lengths of stay were significantly shorter in patients in the EG (3.3 ± 1.9 days in the EG v 5.8 ± 4.1 in the CG, p < 0.001, and 7.4 ± 2.9 days in the EG v 11.2 ± 6.8 days in the CG, p = 0.009). Conclusions In children undergoing cardiac surgery, anesthetic management with early cessation of mechanical ventilation appears to be safe and decreases hospital and PICU length of stay. However, because the size of the study did not allow for the detection of possible differences in perioperative mortality, only a large multicenter study may provide a definite answer to this question. The present study may be treated as a pilot for such a trial.