Coagulation Tests and Bleeding Classification After Cardiopulmonary Bypass: A Prospective Study

No recent prospective studies have analyzed the accuracy of standard coagulation tests and thromboelastography (TEG) to identify patients with excessive microvascular bleeding following cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The aim of this study was to assess the value of coagulation profile tests, as well as TEG, for the classification of microvascular bleeding after CPB.

A prospective observational study.

At a single-center academic hospital.

Patients ≥18 years of age undergoing elective cardiac surgery.

Qualitative assessment of microvascular bleeding post-CPB (surgeon and anesthesiologist consensus) and the association with coagulation profile tests and TEG values.

A total of 816 patients were included in the study-358 (44%) bleeders and 458 (56%) nonbleeders. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for the coagulation profile tests and TEG values ranged from 45% to 72%. The predictive utility was similar across tests, with prothrombin time (PT) (62% accuracy, 51% sensitivity, 70% specificity), international normalized ratio (INR) (62% accuracy, 48% sensitivity, 72% specificity), and platelet count (62% accuracy, 62% sensitivity, 61% specificity) displaying the highest performance. Secondary outcomes were worse in bleeders versus nonbleeders, including higher chest tube drainage, total blood loss, transfusion of red blood cells, reoperation rates (p < 0.001, respectively), readmission within 30 days (p = 0.007), and hospital mortality (p = 0.021).

Standard coagulation tests and individual components of TEG in isolation agree poorly with the visual classification of microvascular bleeding after CPB. The PT-INR and platelet count performed best but had low accuracy. Further work is warranted to identify better testing strategies to guide perioperative transfusion decisions in cardiac surgical patients.