Myocardial Protection during Surgery for Infective Endocarditis: retrospective, single center, risk-adjusted study

Objectives Current evidence does not support superiority of one cardioplegia type over another, but stems from low-risk populations. Therefore, we compared outcomes of multimorbid, high-risk infective endocarditis (IE) patients receiving Custodiol ® crystalloid or Calafiore blood cardioplegia during cardiac surgery. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 553 patients (mean EuroScore II 22.7 ± 21.1) who underwent surgery for IE between 2009 and 2023 and received either cold crystalloid (Custodiol ® , n = 335) or warm blood (Calafiore, n = 218) cardioplegia. The primary endpoint was 1-year mortality. Secondary endpoints included 30-day mortality, postoperative stroke, and new-onset dialysis. Propensity score matching (1:1, 14 covariates) resulted in 175 matched pairs. Statistical analysis included nonparametric and exact tests. Results: In the overall cohort, patients receiving Custodiol ® were higher risk and had higher mortality and morbidity. After matching, there was no significant difference in 1-year mortality between patients receiving Custodiol® and Calafiore (37.1% vs. 28.6%, p = 0.09). Thirty-day mortality trended to be lower in the Calafiore group without reaching statistical significance (22.9% vs. 14.9%, p = 0.057). However, stroke was less frequent (4.6% vs. 10.9%, p = 0.029), ICU stay was shorter (3[1–8] vs. 6[3–12.5] days, p < 0.001) and postoperative dialysis was numerically less common (13.7 vs. 20.6%, p = 0.091). These differences were most evident in procedures with shorter cross-clamp times, such as isolated mitral or aortic valve surgery, where mortality and recovery parameters consistently favored Calafiore. Conclusions In high-risk endocarditis patients warm blood cardioplegia may be superior to cold crystalloid, although differences did not reach statistical significance. However, propensity matching may not have accounted for all differences, which warrants further discussion and investigation.