Factors associated with excessive bleeding in cardiopulmonary bypass patients: a nested case-control study

Excessive bleeding (EB) after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) may lead to increased mortality, morbidity, transfusion requirements and re-intervention. Less than 50% of patients undergoing re-intervention exhibit surgical sources of bleeding. We studied clinical and genetic factors associated with EB.

We performed a nested case-control study of 26 patients who did not receive antifibrinolytic prophylaxis. Variables were collected preoperatively, at intensive care unit (ICU) admission, at 4 and 24 hours post-CPB. EB was defined as 24-hour blood loss of > 1 l post-CPB. Associations of EB with genetic, demographic, and clinical factors were analyzed, using SPSS-12.2 for statistical purposes.

EB incidence was 50%, associated with body mass index (BMI) < 26.4 (25-28) Kg/m2, (P = 0.03), lower preoperative levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) (P = 0.01), lower body temperature during CPB (P = 0.037) and at ICU admission (P = 0.029), and internal mammary artery graft (P = 0.03) in bypass surgery. We found a significant association between EB and 5G homozygotes for PAI-1, after adjusting for BMI (F = 6.07; P = 0.02) and temperature during CPB (F = 8.84; P = 0.007). EB patients showed higher consumption of complement, coagulation, fibrinolysis and hemoderivatives, with significantly lower leptin levels at all postoperative time points (P = 0.01, P < 0.01 and P < 0.01).

Excessive postoperative bleeding in CPB patients was associated with demographics, particularly less pronounced BMI, and surgical factors together with serine protease activation.