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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;135:216-217
© 2008 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief Communication

An alternative approach for chest drainage after cardiac surgery: Redon drains

Marek Gwozdziewicz, MD, PhD^_*, Petr Nmec, MD, PhD, Andrea Steriovsky, MD

Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital, Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Received for publication June 20, 2007; revisions received August 28, 2007; accepted for publication September 14, 2007.

^_* Address for reprints: Marek Gwozdziewicz, MD, PhD, University Hospital Olomouc, I. P. Pavlova 6, 775 15 Olomouc, Czech Republic. (Email: gwozdziewicz@email.cz).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Dr Gwozdziewicz

At the end of every cardiac procedure, two or three chest tubes (28F–32F) are typically placed in the mediastinum to continuously monitor postoperative blood loss and to prevent undesirable blood collection, especially in the pericardial space, which could potentially lead to cardiac tamponade. The chest tubes are connected to various drainage systems that use the underwater valve seal principle. Suction of about –20 cm H₂O is usually applied.

Here we present an alternative drainage system that provides distinct advantages over the commonly used systems.

Technique

The drainage system consists of four or five Redon (B. Braun Melsungen AG, Melsungen, Germany) drains (2-mm inner diameter). Each drain is connected to a 600-mL reservoir with an applied suction of –800 mbar (816 cm H₂O) (Figure 1). They are placed into the pericardial space (and pleural cavity, if needed) in the following sequence (Figure 2):

1 Drain 1 is positioned along the right heart border . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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				N. Al-Attar, R. Raffoul, and P. Nataf Redon drains and underwater seal: The better of two worlds? J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg., July 1, 2008; 136(1): 236 - 236. [Full Text] [PDF]