DISCUSSION
Cardiac and renal function
EVENTS, COMPLICATIONS
Our results show that there is no difference in myocardial protection in the 1st 48 h when ICBC and IWBC are used, as evidenced by the similar cTnT profiles in the 2 groups. Cardiac and renal function were also comparable. However, participants in the IWBC group had on average a longer stay in PICU and experienced more complications. These events were unlikely to be linked to myocardial protection via the temperature of the cardioplegia. Specifically, surrogate markers of cardiac function, namely blood gases (including CVS), mean VIS in the 1st 48 h and predischarge echocardiography were comparable in the 2 groups. We did not include a technical performance score, which is known to directly affect outcomes [In Thermic-3, we aimed to extend our warm bypass investigation into myocardial protection by warm blood cardioplegia. We focused on St Thomas’ solution, which is the most commonly used preparation worldwide, and has benefitted from the highest level of scrutiny [