Adrenal Responsiveness During the Perioperative Period in Children Undergoing Congenital Cardiac Surgery

Our objective was to determine whether a standard 1mg/kg intraoperative dose of dexamethasone results in similar drug levels for all patients and to characterize the relationship between these drug levels and the innate stress response following infant Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB). The investigators hypothesized that postoperative dexamethasone levels are highly variable, and that the infant stress response is inversely related to the amount of dexamethasone measured in the blood. To test this theory the investigators simultaneously measured blood levels of dexamethasone and cortisol at critical time points during the perioperative period for infants undergoing CPB for CHD surgery.