State-of-the-art blood management in cardiac surgery

Blood has been described as the most precious and personal substance in the world. Current directions in cardiac surgery are moving away from transfusing donor "Allogeneic" blood products, and towards improving methods of saving and preserving the patient's own "autologous" blood. Nothing else comes close to the natural healing abilities and homeostasis that one's own whole blood offers. No substitute, whether it is human or artificial, will ever work as well with fluid shifts, hemostasis and homeostasis. News reports today commonly feature severe blood shortages and research documenting recognized transfusion risks such as how older stored blood can put heart surgery patients at increased risk and others that point to the morbidity and mortality associated with its use. Therefore the medical community is moving towards more effective blood utilization by minimizing the exposure to donated blood. Current techniques are saving as much as possible of the patient's own blood that might otherwise be mismanaged or lost during surgery. Techniques, such as Ultrafiltration, that quickly concentrate and reinfuse whole blood back to the patient are the best choice. Admission to discharge hemovigilance requires a concerted multidisciplinary team effort with multimodal tools available in the coagulation armamentarium to effectively avoid this form of organ transplant. Improving outcomes and reducing morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery takes place at the microcirculatory capillary level and with control of Hemostasis. Cardiac teams need to effectively communicate and minimize blood loss and hemodilution and reverse it, for state of the art blood management in Cardiac surgery.