Journal of cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia
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J. Cardiothorac. Vasc. Anesth. · Aug 1993
Calculating the protamine-heparin reversal ratio: a pilot study investigating a new method.
There is no consensus as to the dosage of protamine required to reverse a given dose of heparin. The amounts advised vary widely. The hypothesis was investigated that doses of protamine smaller than those usually recommended could be used following cardiac surgery to successfully reverse heparin activity as measured by the activated coagulation time (ACT). ⋯ Following heparin administration the ACT increased to 701 +/- 152 seconds. After the IND of protamine, the average ACT of 160 +/- 31 (range, 121 to 250) was not statistically (NS) significantly different from the starting value. A further dose of 2 mg/kg of protamine ("full-dose") decreased (NS) the ACT only minimally to an average of 151 +/- 18 (range, 128 to 206) seconds.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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J. Cardiothorac. Vasc. Anesth. · Aug 1993
Prevention of postbypass bleeding with tranexamic acid and epsilon-aminocaproic acid.
In this institution, two antifibrinolytic agents have been in routine use before cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) to prevent bleeding due to fibrinolysis; epsilon-aminocaproic acid (EACA) or tranexamic acid (TA) are administered as intravenous infusions over 2 hours, from the time of anesthetic induction until the onset of CPB. TA is 10 times more potent and binds more strongly to plasminogen than EACA. Data were collected retrospectively on 411 patients undergoing first-time coronary artery bypass grafting with cardiopulmonary bypass who had received one of four therapy regimens: 10 g of EACA (65 patients), 15 g of EACA (60 patients), 6 g of TA (100 patients), or 10 g of TA (75 patients). ⋯ Although 10 g of TA was more effective than 6 g of TA in blood loss control for the first 6 hours, the difference was not significant at 24 hours. A significantly lower number of patients in the 10 g TA group received blood products than in control (28% v 49%) patients (P = 0.02). Pretreatment with 10 g of TA prevented excessive (over 750 mL in 6 hours) bleeding after CPB.