Dr Naveed ur Rehman delivered a lecture on Low Cardiac Output Syndrome for the Pakistan Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiologists on Saturday April  20, 2024.

Areas covered in this video: 

• Definition
• Criteria
• New scoring being introduced
• Causes and what to exclude
• Key concepts about oxygen delivery
• ​Oxygen therapeutic extraction
• Oxygen consumption
• How to manage patients
• How to manage the preload and the afterload or the afterload
• How to manage pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary treatment of systolic and diastolic dysfunction with non-pharmacological treatment of systolic and diastolic dysfunction and single ventricle management
• ​Outcome studies

Low cardiac output syndrome is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients after cardiac surgery, and in almost 25% of infants who undergo arterial switch operation do develop low cardiac output syndrome. The cardiac index which is being reported is lowest at 9 to 12 hours postoperatively.

Therefore, early recognition is crucial in the initial 12 to 24 hours and bedside nurses play a vital role in early recognition.

LCOS occurs secondary to the acute myocarditis and septic shock patient. So for the definition, it is a constellation of symptoms indicating an inability of the heart to deliver oxygen to tissues and other end organs, which in turn means that metabolic demand is not met. ​​

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