Assessment of Microvascular Circulation in the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Patient

The pediatric cardiac surgery patient endures a tremendous number of physiologic alterations during surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) that lasts well into the recovery period. Most of the hemodynamic data are assessed and treated with macrovascular assessment tools such as blood pressure and central venous line measures. Studies show there may be an incoherence of macrovascular to microvascular assessment; i.e. a patient with a stable macrovascular status may not be in the state of microvascular stability. The use of a handheld device called Cytocam incident dark-field (IDF) microcirculatory camera (Braedius Medical, Huizen, Netherlands) gives real-time video screening and data feedback to assess the microvasculature in the hemodynamically labile patient.