The effects of milking and suction drain management methods in paediatric patients after cardiac surgery.

AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of milking and suction methods on maintaining drain patency following cardiac surgery in paediatric patients.

METHODS

This was a randomized controlled trial. The patients were assigned to three groups (suction method, milking method, and control group) between July 2018 and December 2019.

RESULTS

The most frequent medical diagnoses were tetralogy of Fallot (34.4%, n = 31) and ventricular septal defect (14.4%, n = 13). Heart rate may increase unless a method was chosen to maintain drain patency (F: 4.450, p = 0.003); suction (F: 0.528 p = 0.781) and milking (F: 2.281 p = 0.070) methods did not significantly increase the heart rate. The use of a manipulation method for maintaining drain patency maintained stability of the blood pressure values and did not affect haemodynamic stability, oxygen saturation, and body temperature. There was no statistically significant difference within and among the groups (p > 0.05) in relation to the volume of bleeding between admission until the sixth hour, although there was greater bleeding with the milking method (2.67 ± 15.30 ml) and less bleeding (-5.00 ± 23.30) with the suction method.

CONCLUSION

The milking and suction methods used to maintain drain patency can be employed and will assist with maintaining the stability of the patient within the first critical 6 h. Further studies need to be conducted in order to clarify that the recommendations can be generalized to all children with congenital heart disease.