Haematological alterations in the cardiac patient after use of an autotransfusion system.

OBJECTIVE: There are studies that declare blood recovered with the autotransfusion system that is potentially heparinised and mixed with other drugs, can cause haematological alterations in the patient, according to existing evidence. The proposal was to compare the haematological values of the patients before reinfusing red blood cells from the cell saver and 12h after reinfusion.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Observational analytical study of 479 patients who underwent cardiac surgery where the cell saver was used. Haematological variables were collected before reinfusion and 12h after reinfusion.

RESULTS: Statistically significant haematological values before reinfusion and 12h after reinfusion were: haemoglobin (9.5 to 12.5g/dL), haematocrit (26 to 38%), platelets (214.2 to 164.210^3/μL), total proteins (7.6 to 5.1g/dL), PCR (8.5 to 22.1mg/L) and D-dimer (493.3 to 875.5μg/L) with P<.05.

CONCLUSIONS: With the use of the cell saver an increase was observed of haemoglobin, haematocrit, PCR and D-dimer values together with a decrease in platelet and total protein numbers.