Hyaluronan based heparin free coated open and closed extracorporeal circuits for high risk coronary revascularization.

This prospective randomized study compares the inflammatory response and fibrinolytic activation of fully coated/uncoated and open/closed extracorporeal circuits (ECC) in high risk patients. Over a 2-month period, 48 patients with EuroSCOREs 6 or greater undergoing coronary revascularization were prospectively randomized to one of the four perfusion protocols: Group 1: Closed and totally hyaluronan based heparin free coated (Vision HFO-GBS-HF, Gish Biomedical, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) ECC with a soft-shell coated venous reservoir (SVR11S2-HFC, Gish Biomedical) and a hard-shell cardiotomy (CAPVRF44, Gish Biomedical) (n = 12); Group 2: Closed and totally uncoated identical ECC with soft-shell uncoated venous reservoir and a hard-shell cardiotomy (n = 12); Group 3: Open, totally hyaluronan based heparin free coated ECC (n = 12); and Group 4: Control-open, uncoated ECC (n = 12). Blood samples were collected at T1: Baseline; T2: 15 minutes after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) initiation; T3: before cessation of CPB; T4: 15 minutes after protamine reversal, and T5: in the intensive care unit.

Preoperative fibrinogen levels as a predictor of postoperative bleeding after open heart surgery.

Background: Open heart surgery still involving major bleeding continues to be a major challenge after cardiac surgery and is also a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Most hemostatic factors are intercorrelated with postoperative bleeding, and fibrinogen seems the most fundamental hemostatic risk factor for open heart surgery.

Methods: The study included 97 patients who underwent elective coronary artery surgery (78 men and 19 women; mean age, 60.

Giant right atrial myxoma mimicking hepatic cirrhosis: a case report.

Cardiac myxomas are rare benign tumors of the heart. The growth rate of these tumors remains unknown. Right atrial myxoma can simulate nonspecific constitutional symptoms, such as remittent or lasting fever, weight loss, and chronic anemia, and may escape timely diagnosis until the development of severe complications such as pulmonary hypertension due to embolism from fragments originating from the tumor mass or blockage of the right atrioventricular ostium or Budd-Chiari syndrome with acute abdominal pain.