Introduction of fibrinogen in the treatment of hemostatic disorders during orthotopic liver transplantation: implications in the use of allogenic blood.
BACKGROUND
Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) requires a large amount of blood-derived resources. The indications for their availability in the surgery area is based on empirical protocols. The implementation of point-of-care apparatuses gives rise to the detection of hemostatic alterations due to functional deficits of fibrinogen.


METHODS
To monitor coagulation disorders and other biochemical parameters, we used thromboelastometry (ROTEM®) and a MovlLab® unit, respectively. We evaluated the stability and firmness of the clot based on fibrin (FibTem test). The measurements were performed during all of the liver transplant stages: baseline, anhepatic, and reperfusion. Fibrinogen (hemocompletan) was administered to achieve maximum clot firmness, based on patient weight and the existence of surgical bleeding. This pilot cohort of 20 transplant patients (group B) compared outcomes with the 59 patients from the previous year (group A).


RESULTS
Haemocompletan was administered to 45% of the 20 patients. The ratio of red blood cell components per patient diminished from 8.4 to 3.9 (53% reduction) and, fresh frozen plasma from 5.6 to 1.9 (65% reduction). Transfusions of platelet concentrates decreased by 50% with a ratio of 1.5-0.7 per patient. Likewise, 20% of transplant patients received no transfusions of blood products compared with 3.5% in the previous period.


CONCLUSIONS
The incorporation of fibrinogen into the treatment of hemostatic disorders in OLT leads to a reduced use of allogenic blood products. We observed reduced number of patients who received transfusions, while those who underwent transfusion did so to a lesser degree.
Departament of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Virgen del Rocío Universtity Hospital and Institute of Biomedicine, Sevilla, Spain.
J A
JA
Noval-Padillo
A
A
León-Justel
P
P
Mellado-Miras
F
F
Porras-Lopez
D
D
Villegas-Duque
M A
MA
Gomez-Bravo
J M
JM
Guerrero
D001778:Blood Coagulation Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D010865:Pilot Projects
D005340:Fibrinogen