Haemostatic Role of TachoSil Surgical Patch in Cardiac Surgery

Excessive bleeding presents a risk for the patient in cardiovascular surgery. Local haemostatic agents are of great value to reduce bleeding and related complications. TachoSil (Nycomed, Linz, Austria) is a sterile, haemostatic agent that consists of an equine collagen patchcoated with human fibrinogen and thrombin. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of TachoSil compared to conventional technique.

Forty-two patients scheduled for open heart surgeries, were entered to this study from August 2010 to May 2011. After primary haemostatic measures, patients divided in two groups based on surgeon's judgment. Group A: 20 patients for whom TachoSil was applied and group B: 22 patients that conventional method using Surgicel (13 patients) or wait and see method (9 cases), were performed in order to control the bleeding. In group A, 10 patients were male with mean age of 56.95±15.67 years and in group B, 9 cases were male with mean age of 49.95±14.41 years. In case group 70% (14/20) of the surgeries were redo surgeries versus 100% (22/22) in control group.

Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. In TachoSil group 75% of patients required transfusion versus 90.90% in group B (P=0.03).Most transfusions consisted of packed red blood cell; 2±1.13 units in group A versus 3.11±1.44 in group B (P=0.01), however there were no significant differences between two groups regarding the mean total volume of intra and post-operative bleeding. Re-exploration was required in 10% in group A versus 13.63% in group B (P=0.67).

TachoSil may act as a superior alternative in different types of cardiac surgery in order to control the bleeding and therefore reducing transfusion requirement.