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The perioperative use of blood components during heart and heart‐lung transplantation
Author(s) -
Hunt B. J.,
Sack D.,
Amin S.,
Yacoub M. H.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1046/j.1537-2995.1992.32192116434.x
Subject(s) - interquartile range , medicine , perioperative , transplantation , heart transplantation , red blood cell , surgery
Perioperative blood usage during 172 heart transplants (HTs) and 100 heart‐lung transplants (HTLs) performed at the same center during 1986 and 1989 was reviewed. In 1986, 79 HTs were performed with a median (interquartile range) blood component use of 12 (range, 8–20) units, of which 6 (range, 4–8) constituted red cell components. The use of blood components was significantly reduced (p < 0.05 by the Mann‐ Whitney U test) in 1989 to 10 (range, 8–20) units, of which red cell components constituted 5 (range, 3–7) units. Fifty HLTs in 1986 used a median (interquartile range) of 25.5 (range, 11.5–53) units of blood components. This use was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) to a median of 18 (range, 9–29) units in 1989, of which 8 (range, 5–11) were red cell components, 4 (range, 2–8) were units of fresh‐frozen plasma, and 5 (range, 0–10) were units of platelets. More blood components were used in patients who had previous cardiothoracic surgery and/or previous transplants; this reached significance in the 1986 HTs (p < 0.001). Fresh blood was used in only one HT but in 12 (24%) of 1086 HLTs and 4 (8%) of 1989 HLTs. As the indication for fresh blood was excessive bleeding, there was a significantly greater use of blood components in 1989 HLT patients receiving fresh blood than in those not receiving fresh blood (median [range] of 163.5 [62–251] units compared to 15.5 [3–126]). There was a trend for patients who had a large blood loss to have a reduced 1‐week postoperative survival, which reached significance (p<0.05) in the 1987 HLTs.