Introduction:

Inducing hypocapnia is a common practice during pediatric general anesthesia, even though it has not shown clear benefits.

Objective:

To compare the impact of carbon dioxide values after aortic impingement (< 32.7 vs ≥ 32.7 mmHg) on postoperative morbimortality among pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Material and methods:

A case-control study included 90 pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. The study cases consisted of 45 patients who died within 30 days of the postoperative period. Cases and controls were individually matched (1:1 ratio). Descriptive and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney’s U, Student’s t and χ2 tests) were used to analyze the results. A p < 0.05 was considered significant. A univariate analysis was also carried out. The strength of association between morbimortality and carbon dioxide values after aortic impingement was determined using the odds ratio. The data were processed using SPSS v-24.0.

Results:

The group with carbon dioxide values of < 32.7 mmHg after aortic impingement was associated with greater morbidity (OR 24.75; 95% CI 4.92-124.32) and mortality (OR 22.47; 95% CI 4.85-10.17) at 30 days.

Conclusion:

Pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery with carbon dioxide values of < 32.7 mmHg after aortic impingement showed higher postoperative morbimortality than those with carbon dioxide values of ≥ 32.7 mmHg.