Study Limitations
There are a number of limitations to the present study. First, the
relatively low patient number makes it difficult to determine a
statistically significant difference for our primary and secondary
outcomes. The single-surgeon research design may also lead to patient
selection biases, although we endeavored to minimize this since the
surgeon was not permitted to select the cardioplegia strategy used for
each patient. Another limitation is that cardiac functions were not
evaluated using postoperativecardiac output monitoring and
echocardiograms. The short follow-up timerepresents furtherlimitation in
thisand all presently available studies, and is a subject requiring
further consideration in the future.