Effect of priming solution and ultrafiltration on post-operative bleeding and blood transfusion in cardiac surgery. Randomized controlled trial

Safety and Efficacy of Albumin for Pump Priming in Cardiac Surgery: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVES

To assess the efficacy and safety of albumin as pump priming fluid in cardiac surgery.

DESIGN

Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

SETTING

Each study was conducted in a surgical center or intensive care unit.

PARTICIPANTS

Adult and pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass who received circuit priming fluids.

INTERVENTIONS

Extracorporeal circuit priming with either albumin or crystalloid.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS

Fourteen eligible randomized controlled trials with 741 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. Albumin prime had lower bleeding (CI -202.20 to -142.88 mL, p < 0.00001) and showed a greater advantage in preserving platelet counts (CI 14.85-21.48 × 103 mm-3, p < 0.00001), maintaining colloid osmotic pressure and sustaining negative fluid balance. No significant differences were found in the remaining study outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Albumin was shown to be safe and efficacious in extracorporeal circulation perfusion. However, its clinical advantages were not clearly highlighted, as there were no significant differences in the number of deaths, length of hospital stay, or intensive care unit duration. The results should be interpreted cautiously, as most included studies were small in scale, and the total number of participants was limited.

Consensus Report on Patient Blood Management in Cardiac Surgery by Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (TSCVS), Turkish Society of Cardiology (TSC), and Society of Cardio-Vascular-Thoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (SCTAIC)

Anemia, transfusion and bleeding independently increase the risk of complications and mortality in cardiac surgery. The main goals of patient blood management are to treat anemia, prevent bleeding, and optimize the use of blood products during the perioperative period. The benefit of this program has been confirmed in many studies and its utilization is strongly recommended by professional organizations. This consensus report has been prepared by the authors who are the task members appointed by the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, Turkish Society of Cardiology (TSC), and Society of Cardio-Vascular-Thoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care to raise the awareness of patient blood management. This report aims to summarize recommendations for all perioperative blood- conserving strategies in cardiac surgery.

The influence of ultrafiltration on red blood cell transfusion during cardiopulmonary bypass

Background:

Ultrafiltration during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) reduces fluid overload and inflammatory mediators in open-heart surgery and is thought to reduce the risk of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. We evaluated its effectiveness in reducing RBC transfusions in a large population undergoing cardiac surgery, among patients in general as well as by gender.

Methods:

We analyzed 40,650 propensity-matched adult cardiac surgery cases conducted over a 61-month period at 195 hospitals. We assessed the risk of intraoperative transfusion (⩾1 unit RBC) according to body surface area (BSA)-normalized ultrafiltration volume via mixed-effects binary logistic regression. Our statistical model controlled for 12 demographic and operative variables as well as for center level tendencies in ultrafiltration use and intraoperative RBC transfusion. In light of recent findings on gender and risk of transfusion, we also included an interaction effect between gender and ultrafiltration volume (UV).

Results:

Ultrafiltration was associated with an increased crude rate of RBC transfusion (32.1% vs. 28.1%, p<0.001), but equivalent crude median hematocrit change from first in operating room to nadir on bypass (−11% in both groups, p = 0.133). After controlling for patient, operative and site-level characteristics, we found no statistically significant effect on transfusion rate by volume of ultrafiltrate removed nor did we find statistical support for any gender-specific effect of ultrafiltration.

Conclusions:

Ultrafiltration is not associated with a reduction of risk of RBC transfusion during cardiac surgery. The use of ultrafiltration as a method for reducing intraoperative RBC transfusion warrants further study.

Appropriate blood component therapy can reduce postcardiac surgery acute kidney injury through packed cell transfusion reduction

Background:

Acute kidney injury (AKI) can happen due to different factors such as anemia. Packed cell (PC) transfusion is an important cause of AKI occurrence. The aim of the study is to investigate whether appropriate blood component (BC) therapy can reduce blood transfusion and it would result in AKI decreasing.

Materials and Methods:

We conducted a cohort study of 1388 patients who underwent cardiac surgery in one university hospital. A serum creatinine higher than 2 mg/dl, renal disease history, renal replacement therapy (chronic dialysis) were our exclusion criteria.

Results:

From our 1088 samples, 701 (64.43%) patients had normal kidney function, 277 (25.45%) were in the AKI-1 group, 84 (7.72%) had an AKI-2 function, and the rest of patients were classified as end stage. A mean of more than three PC units were transfused for the second and third stage of AKI, which was significantly higher than other AKI groups (P = 0.009); this higher demand of blood product was also true about the fresh frozen plasma, platelet, and fibrinogen. However, there were no needs of fibrinogen in the patients with normal kidney function. The cardiopulmonary bypass time had an average of 142 ± 24.12, which obviously was higher than other groups (P = 0.032). Total mortality rate was 14 out of 1088 (1.28%), and expiration among the AKI stages 2 and 3 was meaningfully (P = 0.001) more than the other groups.

Conclusion:

A more occurrence of AKI reported for the patients who have taken more units of blood. However, BC indicated to be safer for compensating blood loss because of low AKI occurrence among our patients.