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Background: The Preoperative Score to Predict Postoperative Mortality (POSPOM) based on preoperatively available data was presented by Le Manach et al. in 2016. This prognostic model considers the kind of surgical procedure, patients' age and 15 defined comorbidities to predict the risk of postoperative in-hospital mortality. Objective of the present study was to validate POSPOM for the German healthcare coding system (G-POSPOM)., Methods and Findings: All cases involving anaesthesia performed at the University Hospital Bonn between 2006 and 2017 were analysed retrospectively. Procedures codified according to the French Groupes Homogènes de Malades (GHM) were translated and adapted to the German Operationen- und Prozedurenschlüssel (OPS). Comorbidities were identified by the documented International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding. POSPOM was calculated for the analysed patient collective using these data according to the method described by Le Manach et al. Performance of thereby adapted POSPOM was tested using c-statistic, Brier score and a calibration plot. Validation was performed using data from 199,780 surgical cases. With a mean age of 56.33 years (SD 18.59) and a proportion of 49.24% females, the overall cohort had a mean POSPOM value of 18.18 (SD 8.11). There were 4,066 in-hospital deaths, corresponding to an in-hospital mortality rate of 2.04% (95% CI 1.97 to 2.09%) in our sample. POSPOM showed a good performance with a c-statistic of 0.771 and a Brier score of 0.021., Conclusions: After adapting POSPOM to the German coding system, we were able to validate the score using patient data of a German university hospital. According to previous demonstration for French patient cohorts, we observed a good correlation of POSPOM with in-hospital mortality. Therefore, further adjustments of POSPOM considering also multicentre and transnational validation should be pursued based on this proof of concept., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 affect many organs, including the heart. Cardiovascular disease is a dominant comorbidity and prognostic factors predicting risk for critical courses are highly needed. Moreover, immunomechanisms underlying COVID-induced myocardial damage are poorly understood., Objective: To elucidate prognostic markers to identify patients at risk., Results: Only patients with pericardial effusion (PE) developed a severe disease course, and those who died could be identified by a high CD8/Treg/monocyte ratio. Ten out of 19 COVID-19 patients presented with PE, 7 (78%) of these had elevated APACHE-II mortality risk-score, requiring mechanical ventilation. At admission, PE patients showed signs of systemic and cardiac inflammation in NMR and impaired cardiac function as detected by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), whereas parameters of myocardial injury e.g. high sensitive troponin-t (hs-TnT) were not yet increased. During the course of disease, hs-TnT rose in 8 of the PE-patients above 16 ng/l, 7 had to undergo ventilatory therapy and 4 of them died. FACS at admission showed in PE patients elevated frequencies of CD3 + CD8 + T cells among all CD3+ T-cells, and lower frequencies of Tregs and CD14 + HLA - DR + -monocytes. A high CD8/Treg/monocyte ratio predicted a severe disease course in PE patients, and was associated with high serum levels of antiviral cytokines. By contrast, patients without PE and PE patients with a low CD8/Treg/monocyte ratio neither had to be intubated, nor died., Conclusions: PE predicts cardiac injury in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, TTE should be performed at admission. Immunological parameters for dysfunctional antiviral immunity, such as the CD8/Treg/monocyte ratio used here, supports risk assessment by predicting poor prognosis., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Providing anesthesia for pediatric patients undergoing congenital cardiac surgery is complex and requires profound knowledge and clinical experience. Prospective studies on best anesthetic management are missing, partially due to different standards. The aim of the present study was to survey the current standard practice in anesthetic management in pediatric cardiac surgical centers in Germany., Methods: All 78 cardiac surgical centers in Germany were reviewed for a congenital cardiac surgery program. Centers with an active program for congenital cardiac surgery were interviewed to participate in the present online questionnaire to assess their current anesthetic practice., Results: Twenty-seven German centers running an active program for congenital heart surgery were identified, covering more than 3,000 pediatric cardiac surgeries annually. Of these centers, 96.3% (26/27) participated in our survey. Standard induction agents were etomidate in 26.9% (7/26), propofol in 19.2% (5/26), a combination of benzodiazepines and ketamine in 19.2% (5/26), and barbiturates in 11.5% (3/26). General anesthesia was preferentially maintained using volatile agents, 61.5% (16/26), with sevoflurane being the most common volatile agent within this group, 81.2% (13/16). Intraoperative first-choice/first-line inotropic drug was epinephrine, 53.8% (14/26), followed by milrinone, 23.1% (6/26), and dobutamine 15.4% (4/26). Fast-track programs performing on-table extubation depending on the type of surgical procedure were established at 61.5% (16/26) of the centers., Conclusion: This study highlights the diversity of clinical standards in pediatric cardiac anesthesia for congenital cardiac surgery in Germany.

Background: Perioperative anaemia leads to impaired oxygen supply with a risk of vital organ ischaemia. In healthy and fit individuals, anaemia can be compensated by several mechanisms. Elderly patients, however, have less compensatory mechanisms because of multiple co-morbidities and age-related decline of functional reserves. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether elderly surgical patients may benefit from a liberal red blood cell (RBC) transfusion strategy compared to a restrictive transfusion strategy., Methods: The LIBERAL Trial is a prospective, randomized, multicentre, controlled clinical phase IV trial randomising 2470 elderly (≥ 70 years) patients undergoing intermediate- or high-risk non-cardiac surgery. Registered patients will be randomised only if Haemoglobin (Hb) reaches ≤9 g/dl during surgery or within 3 days after surgery either to the LIBERAL group (transfusion of a single RBC unit when Hb ≤ 9 g/dl with a target range for the post-transfusion Hb level of 9-10.5 g/dl) or the RESTRICTIVE group (transfusion of a single RBC unit when Hb ≤ 7.5 g/dl with a target range for the post-transfusion Hb level of 7.5-9 g/dl). The intervention per patient will be followed until hospital discharge or up to 30 days after surgery, whichever occurs first. The primary efficacy outcome is defined as a composite of all-cause mortality, acute myocardial infarction, acute ischaemic stroke, acute kidney injury (stage III), acute mesenteric ischaemia and acute peripheral vascular ischaemia within 90 days after surgery. Infections requiring iv antibiotics with re-hospitalisation are assessed as important secondary endpoint. The primary endpoint will be analysed by logistic regression adjusting for age, cancer surgery (y/n), type of surgery (intermediate- or high-risk), and incorporating centres as random effect., Discussion: The LIBERAL-Trial will evaluate whether a liberal transfusion strategy reduces the occurrence of major adverse events after non-cardiac surgery in the geriatric population compared to a restrictive strategy within 90 days after surgery., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT03369210 ).