title: Optimal management of bleeding and transfusion in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
abstract: Patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) are at increased risk for excessive perioperative blood loss requiring transfusion of blood products. Point-of-care evaluation of platelets, coagulation factors, and fibrinogen can enable physicians to rapidly assess bleeding abnormalities, facilitate the optimal administration of pharmacological and transfusion-based therapy, and also identify patients with surgical bleeding. The ability to reduce the unnecessary use of blood products in this setting has important implications for emerging issues in blood inventory and blood costs. The ability to decrease surgical time, along with exploration rates, has important consequences for health care costs in an increasingly managed health care environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Despotis
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Skubas
authors.forename: L T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Goodnough
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001780:Blood Coagulation Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D003894:Deamino Arginine Vasopressin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005342:Fibrinolysis; D006487:Hemostasis / Q000502:physiology; D006488:Hemostasis, Surgical; D006490:Hemostatics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D019106:Postoperative Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D006490:Hemostatics; D003894:Deamino Arginine Vasopressin