Association of preoperative retinal microcirculation and perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing congenital cardiac surgery

• Published in: Orphanet journal of rare diseases Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 385
• Main Authors: Li, Cong, Zhu, Zhuoting, Yuan, Haiyun, Hu, Yijun, Xue, Yunlian, Zhong, Pingting, Huang, Manqing, Ren, Yun, Kuang, Yu, Zeng, Xiaomin, Yu, Honghua, Yang, Xiaohong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 08.12.2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Angiography; Bleeding; Blood-vessels; Cardiac Surgery; Cardiac Surgical Procedures; Cardiovascular disease; Care and treatment; Complications; Complications and side effects; Congenital Heart Disease; Diagnosis; Fluorescein Angiography - methods; Genetic disorders; Heart; Heart diseases; Heart surgery; Humans; Medical imaging; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Methods; Microcirculation; Microcirculation disorders; Morbidity; Mortality; Optical coherence tomography angiography; Patient outcomes; Patients; Perioperative outcomes; Postoperative; Preoperative care; Prospective Studies; Rare diseases; Retina; Retinal vessel density; Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Surgery; Tomography, Optical Coherence - methods; China; Perioperative outcomes; Congenital Heart Disease; Cardiac Surgery; Optical coherence tomography angiography; Retinal vessel density
• ISSN: 1750-1172; 1750-1172
• DOI: 10.1186/s13023-023-02969-y

Microcirculatory dysfunction is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery patients. This study aimed to investigate the association between preoperative retinal microcirculation evaluated using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and perioperative outcomes in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). This prospective, observational study was performed from May 2017 to January 2021. OCTA was used to automatically quantify the vessel density (VD) of the superficial capillary plexus, deep capillary plexus (DCP), and radial peripapillary capillary (RPC) preoperatively. The primary outcome was excessive postoperative bleeding, defined as bleeding volume > 75th percentile for 24-hour postoperative chest tube output. The secondary outcome was composite adverse outcomes, including one or more operative mortalities, early postoperative complications, and prolonged length of stay. The association between retinal VD and outcomes was assessed using Poisson regression. In total, 173 CHD patients who underwent cardiac surgery were included (mean age, 26 years). Among them, 43 (24.9%) and 46 (26.6%) developed excessive postoperative bleeding and composite adverse outcomes, respectively. A lower VD of DCP (odds ratio [OR], 1.24; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.43; P = 0.003) was independently associated with excessive postoperative bleeding, and a lower VD of RPC (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.08-3.57; P = 0.027), and DCP (OR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.08-4.37; P = 0.029) were independently associated with the postoperative composite adverse outcomes. Preoperative retinal hypoperfusion was independently associated with an increased risk of perioperative adverse outcomes in patients with CHD, suggesting that retinal microcirculation evaluation could provide valuable information about the outcomes of cardiac surgery, thereby aiding physicians in tailoring individualized treatment.