[Adult respiratory distress syndrome after open heart surgery]

Cardiopulmonary bypass used in open heart surgery is responsible for nearly 15% of adult respiratory distress syndrome. The condition has a high mortality rate and still today we do not have a specific therapy for it. The aim of this study was to reveal the factors that are responsible for the adult respiratory distress syndrome developing after open heart operations. A retrospective statistical analysis of the database of 837 consecutive open heart operations was performed. Those patients in whom the adult respiratory distress syndrome has not developed have served as control group. chi 2 probe, Student t test and the Mann-Whitney test were used for the analysis. The authors applied logistic regression analysis for the multivariate investigation. Adult respiratory distress syndrome has developed in 10 patients (1.2%) in the postoperative period. One patient in whom the adult respiratory distress syndrome was accompanied by multiorgan failure has been lost. Between the two subgroups the authors found significant difference in the amount of blood and fresh frozen plasma transfusion, in the duration of ischaemic period and cardiopulmonary bypass, in anaesthesia time, and also in the occurrence of postoperative low cardiac output syndrome and acute myocardial infarction. Fresh frozen plasma can be a risk factor in the development of postoperative adult respiratory distress syndrome. In order to avoid the occurrence of this syndrome a great emphasis must be put on the pulmonary prevention.