Thromboelastography--does it impact blood component transfusion in pediatric heart surgery?

Background: The administration of blood products during pediatric cardiac surgery is common. We sought to determine if thromboelastography (TEG) is a cost-effective tool to reduce blood product transfusion in open pediatric cardiac surgery.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective case-control study was undertaken for 150 pediatric cardiac patients requiring cardiopulmonary bypass from January 2010-May 2012, in a University-affiliated pediatric hospital.

Adenosine triphosphate is released during injurious mechanical ventilation and contributes to lung edema.

Background: Extracellular nucleotides mediate many cellular functions and are released in response to mechanical stress in vitro. It is unknown whether adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is released in vivo during mechanical ventilation (MV). We hypothesized that stress from high-pressure MV would increase airway ATP, contributing to MV-associated lung edema.