[Intraoperative complications during the correction of heart defects under different levels of hypothermia]

An analysis of complications of the operative period in 241 patients operated upon under conditions of mild (up to 28 degrees C--in 141 patients) and deep hypothermia (less than 28 degrees C--in 100 patients) has shown that among operative complications there was prevalence of rhythm disturbances. During operations under conditions of deeper hypothermia the fibrillation of heart ventricles was almost 3 times higher while cooling lower than 26-27 degrees C was followed by the appearance of ciliary arrhythmia almost in all the patients. The frequency of early postoperative cardiac insufficiency was mainly determined by the efficiency of correction of the disease and little depended on the cooling level.