Heparin Dose and Post Operative Bleeding in Cardiopulmonary Bypass Patients

This study examines heparin doses of patients having cardiopulmonary bypass supported surgery in terms of their sensitivity and resistance to heparin which is the standard anticoagulant used. The investigators use the Heparin Management System, an analyser that performs a heparin dose response test. In this test, a patient's whole blood is mixed with increasing amounts of heparin to determine the required dose to achieve a set level of anticoagulation. Patients who are found to resistant to heparin and needing a higher dose are thought by some to bleed more post operatively. It is my view that when the patient is given the correct amount of heparin which is then reversed by the correct amount of protamine (the reversal agent) the bleeding is not determined by heparin dose.

Hypothesis statement: Higher doses of heparin do not cause increased postoperative bleeding and transfusion events in the postoperative CPB patient.

Purposes of the Study

1. Compare heparin sensitive and resistant patients in terms of postoperative bleeding and transfusion events.
2. Determine the incidence of heparin sensitivity or resistance in patients.
3. Identify preoperative factors that lead to heparin resistance or sensitivity in patients.
4. Using the Heparin Dose Response test in determining heparin resistant and sensitive patients.
5. Examination of anticoagulation protocol for open-heart surgery.
6. Effect of preoperative antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy on perioperative care.
7. Use routine laboratory tests and values as well as common clinically available values in the conduct of the study so that results would be clinically relevant.

This is a prospective observational study. Patients will be divided into two groups dependant upon the results of their heparin dose response test; sensitive or resistant. Two groups of thirty will be selected to achieve 90% power at the 0.025 level of significance using a one-sided two-sample t-test.

The primary investigator will collect all data and submit the means to the statistician. Based on anecdotal experience the investigators expect there will be no difference between the two groups in terms of chest tube losses and transfusion events post-operatively.

This work is quite relevant to the investigators daily practice. Every open heart patient is anticoagulated with heparin and bleeds post operatively. The investigators goal is a reproducibly safe anticoagulation level and an acceptable level of chest tube losses. This translates to getting patients out of the operating room in a timely fashion and minimizing transfusion events.