• Eeva-Maija Kinnunen, Marco Zanobini, Francesco Onorati, Debora Brascia, Giovanni Mariscalco, Ilaria Franzese, Vito G Ruggieri, Karl Bounader, Andrea Perrotti, Francesco Musumeci, Giuseppe Santarpino, Daniele Maselli, Saverio Nardella, Helmut Gulbins, Riccardo Gherli, Antonino S Rubino, Carmelo Mignosa, Marisa De Feo, Giuseppe Gatti, Francesco Santini, Antonio Salsano, Magnus Dalén, Matteo Saccocci, Daniel Reichart, Giuseppe Faggian, Tiziano Gherli, Francesco Nicolini, and Fausto Biancari.
• Department of Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. Electronic address: eevamaija.kinnunen@gmail.com.
• J Crit Care. 2017 Aug 1; 40: 207-212.

PurposeTo investigate the impact of minor perioperative bleeding requiring transfusion of 1-2 red blood cell (RBC) units on the outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).MethodsSixteen cardiac surgical centers contributed to the prospective European CABG registry (E-CABG). 1014 patients receiving 1-2 RBC units during or after isolated CABG were compared to 2264 patients not receiving RBCs.ResultsIn 827 propensity score matched pairs, transfusion of 1-2 RBC units did not affect the risk of in-hospital/30-day death (p=0.523) or stroke (p=0.804). However, RBC transfusion was associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury (p=0.008), sternal wound infection (p=0.001), postoperative use of antibiotics (p=0.001), prolonged use of inotropes (p<0.0001), use of intra-aortic balloon pump (p=0.012), length of intensive care unit stay (p<0.0001) and length of in-hospital stay (p<0.0001). Matched paired analysis excluding pre- and postoperative critical hemodynamic conditions showed that RBC transfusion was associated with an increased risk of major complications except in-hospital/30-day death.ConclusionMinor perioperative bleeding and subsequent transfusion of 1-2 RBC units did not affect the risk of early death, but increased the risk of other major adverse events. Minimizing perioperative bleeding and prevention of even low-volume RBC transfusion may improve the outcome after CABG.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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