Bloodless cardiac surgery in children diagnosed with simple congenital heart disease and mild anemia

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the security and feasibility of performing bloodless cardiac surgery in children with simple con－genital heart disease（CHD） and mild anemia. Methods：A total of 99 patients，who underwent cardiac surgery in Children Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from February 2014 to February 2016，diagnosed with CHD and mild anemia preoperatively were enrolled and divided into 2 groups on the basis of perioperative blood transfusion. Eighty-seven patients were performed bloodless surgery and 12 patients were not. Major clinical parameters of postoperative period were compared between 2 groups. Results：No sig－nificant difference in ventilation time，24-hour chest tube drainage volume，ICU retention time，postoperative hospital stay（P=0.85，0.91，0.22，0.84，respectively） was observed between the two groups. Conclusion：For children with simple CHD and mild anemia，it’s proven safe and feasible to conduct bloodless surgery. Hemoglobin optimization could have a not so strict standard to balance the risk of progression of disease and preoperative anemia in transfusion-free surgery although many researchers suggest optimizing hemoglobin level at least to normal value. In addition，accurate assessment of anemia and transfusion indication during pediatric car－diac surgery could further reduce allogenic transfusion and relieve blood shortage.