The limitation of resource of blood and risk of transfusion-transmitted infections contribute to development and generalization of restrictive transfusion strategy. However, advanced evidences of clinical trials indicated a restrictive transfusion threshold after cardiac surgery was not superior to a liberal threshold with respect to morbidity or health care costs. It is time to optimize patient blood management but not free-transfusion and increase of risk of patients. The duration of red-cell storage was not associated with significant differences in the mortality and morbidity of patients. Three new pathogen-reduction technologies and pharmaceutical intervenes may provide safe of transfusion and improvement of outcomes.
Objective To monitor the distribution of blood perfusion during aortic arch aneurysm surgery under double arterial lines with single pump. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 37 patients underwent aortic arch repair or reconstruction between September 2012 and April 2014. There were 9 females and 28 males at mean age of 48.1±10.8 years ranging from 19.0-72.0 years.We took double arterial lines with single pump for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) during the operation and we monitored the perfusion tube flow of both the upper and lower body by blood flow detector. Cerebral blood perfusion was measured by transcranial cerebral Doppler and near-infrared spectroscopy cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2). Results The mean CPB time of all 37 patients was 195.8±40.5 minutes ranging from 136.0-277.0 minutes and the mean duration time of selective antegrade cerebral perfusion (SCAP) was 21.6±5.6 minutes ranging from 5.0-35.0 minutes. During cooling and rewarming phases, the part of blood flow through axillary artery cannulation ranged from 31.5% to 40.8% of the whole body perfusion. The blood flow of SACP was increased to 15.0 ml / (kg·min) in 2 patients with significantly lower rSO2 and middle cerebral artery blood flow during SACP, and they had an uneventful recovery process after surgery. There were another 2 patients recorded abnormal situation of rSO2 without interventions. One patient died and the other one recovered with compications of spinal cord. Conclusions The technique of double arterial lines with single pump is reasonable and effective. The cerebral perfusion monitoring is helpful to detect abnormal perfusion during aortic arch aneurysm surgery.