• Vishal Sharma, Sachin Talwar, Shiv Kumar Choudhary, Rama Lakshmy, Shailaja Kale, and Arkalgud Sampath Kumar.
• Cardiothoracic Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. vishalctva@hotmail.com
• Heart Lung Circ. 2006 Aug 1;15(4):261-5.

BackgroundTo evaluate the effects of autologous blood and Epsilon amino-caproic acid on intra-operative and post-operative blood loss and homologous blood product requirements in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.MethodsPatients were randomly allocated to two groups of 30 each. In the Epsilon amino-caproic acid (EACA) group, the drug was administered in a loading dose of 100 mg/kg before skin incision followed by an infusion of 1/5 th the loading dose hourly and terminated 3 h after heparin neutralization. In the autologous transfusion (AT) group, 10% of the calculated whole blood volume was collected intra-operatively before cardiopulmonary bypass and re-infused after its termination.ResultsHaemoglobin values were comparable pre-operatively, on cardiopulmonary bypass, off cardiopulmonary bypass and post-operatively on day two in both groups. Intra-operative blood loss was not significantly different (643.3+/-129.14 ml in group EACA versus 710+/-145.5 ml in group AT, p = 0.66). Although the chest drainage was more in group AT during 0-3 h (71.3+/-54.3 ml versus 112.6+/-79.3.6 ml, p = 0.006) it was comparable amongst in the first 24 h (231.1+/-98.3 ml in group AT versus 235+/-101.4 ml in group EACA, p = 0.88). Homologous blood product requirements were similar in both groups.ConclusionAutologous blood is as efficacious as Epsilon amino-caproic acid for blood conservation in cardiac surgery.

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