Detection and treatment of pre-operative coagulation abnormalities in cardiac surgical patients

A pre-operative coagulation profile was performed on 10 consecutive patients undergoing open-heart surgery. 16.3% of patients had at least one abnormal result. The most common abnormality was found in the partial thromboplastin time system. All patients were treated with replacement of appropriate specific blood products during surgery. These measures prevented significant excess blood loss in the study group as compared to a control group of patients, both at surgery and over a twenty-four hour post-operative period.