Early experience with combined use of two plant-based hemostatic agents.

Bleeding from anastomoses, which is more effectively controlled with topical hemostatic agents than with sutures, has been one of the major problems in cardiovascular surgery. We describe a novel hemostatic technique using microporous polysaccharide hemosphere (Arista; Medafor Inc, Minneapolis, MN) in conjunction with a patch of oxidized regenerated cellulose (Nu-Knit; Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson, Somerville, NJ). Both of them are plant-based products and eliminate the risk of animal-borne or human-borne contaminants and have bactericidal advantages.