Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Mar;28(3):e19-e20.
doi: 10.1016/j.hlc.2018.02.018. Epub 2018 Mar 6.

Levosimendan Following Cardiac Surgery

Sean M Conte  1 , Daniel S Florisson  2 , Joshua A De Bono  2 , Reece A Davies  2 , Andrew E Newcomb  2
Affiliations
Review

Levosimendan Following Cardiac Surgery

Sean M Conte et al. Heart Lung Circ. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

A best evidence topic was written to address if perioperative levosimendan improves mortality following cardiac surgery. Fourteen papers represented the best available evidence. An older meta-analysis summarising 11 of these trials concluded that there were fewer deaths in the levosimendan group compared to the control group (OR 0.41, p <0.001) however, this was driven by the results of three included trials by the same author. Three larger and more recent randomised controlled trials failed to demonstrate significant differences in mortality. We conclude that levosimendan lacks robust evidence to substantiate claims of mortality benefit in cardiac surgery patients and should not be used routinely in such patients.

Keywords: Cardiac surgery; Levosimendan; Perioperative; Review.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources