Normothermic cardiac surgery with warm blood cardioplegia in patient with cold agglutinins.
Cold agglutinins are predominately immunoglobulin M autoantibodies that react at cold temperatures with surface antigens on the red blood cell. This can lead to hemagglutination at low temperatures, followed by complement fixation and subsequent hemolysis on rewarming. Development of hemagglutination or hemolysis in patients with cold agglutinins is a risk of cardiac surgery under hypothermia. In addition, there is the potential for intracoronary hemagglutination with inadequate distribution of cardioplegic solutions, thrombosis, embolism, ischemia, or infarction. We report a patient with incidentally detected cold agglutinin who underwent normothermic cardiac surgery with warm blood cardioplegia.
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Korea. ; Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chungbuk National University College of Medicine, Korea.
Sang-Ho
SH
Cho
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Korea.
Dae Hyun
DH
Kim
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Korea.
Young Tae
YT
Kwak
Cardiopulmonary bypass; Cold agglutinins; Hemagglutination; Thoracic surgery