The effect of acute autologous blood transfusion on coagulation dysfunction after cardiopulmonary bypass.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of acute autologous blood transfusion on postcardiopulmonary bypass coagulation disturbances evaluated by thromboelastography (TEG) as a point-of-care test.

Methods: This prospective randomized controlled study included consecutive patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. The patients in group A underwent acute autologous blood transfusion with acute normovolemic haemodilution and those in group H received homologous blood, if needed, and served as controls.

Patients with difficult intubation may need referral to sleep clinics.

Purpose: Upper airway abnormalities carry the risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and difficult tracheal intubations. Both conditions contribute to significant clinical problems and have increased perioperative morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized that patients who presented with difficult intubation would have a very high prevalence of OSA and that those with unexpected difficult intubation may require referral to sleep clinics for polysomnography (PSG).