[Epidemiology and prevention of anaphylactoid reactions in heart surgery patients]

A retrospective analysis of the incidence, severity, and causes of anaphylactoid reactions (AR) in 1504 cardiosurgical patients operated on at Research Center of Surgery in 1995-1999 showed that AR occurred in 109 (7.4%) patients: 60% during aortocoronary bypass operations, 27.2% during correction of acquired heart diseases, and 12.8% during correction of congenital heart diseases. Skin symptoms predominated in the structure of AR (59.7%); cardiovascular episodes ranked second (38.5%), and the incidence of pulmonary reactions was lowest (1.8%). The causes of AR during anesthesia and surgery were platelet-rich plasma and fresh-frozen plasma (35.3%), antibiotics (12.1%), protamine (12.1%), myorelaxants (9.9%), colloid plasma substitutes (8.8%), dioxidine (3.3%), heparin (2.2%), aprotinin (1.1%), diazepam (2.2%), and other agents (7.6%). A history of AR and repeated interventions are risk factors of AR. The protocol of AR prevention in cardiosurgical patients includes determination of risk factors, selection of the least hazardous agents, strict adherence to the rate of infusion of histamine-releasing drugs, minimum utilization of donor blood components (platelets and plasma), use of H1 and H2 blockers, corticosteroids (celestone) during premedication and operation. Such treatment helped decrease the severity and incidence of AR in cardiosurgical patients to 4.7%.