Effects Of Tranexamic Acid On Postoperative Outcomes In Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery

Objective:Tranexamic acid has been used more and more in cardiac surgery after aprotinin was suspended for its safety concerns. This study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of tranexamic acid in cardiopulmonary bypass cardiac surgical procedures and evaluate the effects of tranexamic acid.Methods:116selective patients undergoing ardiac surgical procedures were randomly assigned to two groups:tranexamic acid group and control group. Full-dose tranexamic acid was administered in tranexamic acid group but no tranexamic acid was used in control group. We compared early postoperative outcomes between the two groups, including blood loss, transfusion requirement,reoperation for bleeding, mortality and other major complications. All analyses were performed using SAS9.0statistical software. Statistical significance was set at P<0.05.Results:There were58patients in the tranexamic acid group and58patients in the control group. The comparison of baseline characteristics showed no significant difference between two groups except weight, rate of hypertention and smoking.The tranexamic acid group had less postoperative blood loss:6hours p<0.05,24hours p<0.05and total blood loss p<0.05,. Transfusion requirement in the tranexamic acid group was less than the control group, but did not reach statistically significant difference. There were no reoperation for death after operation. Application of tranexamic acid did not increase the risk of other major adverse outcome events, including renal, ardiac, neurological and pulmonary complications. Furthermore, there were no significant difference in the length of ICU stay, length of in-hospital stay after operation.Conclusions:Use of tranexamic acid in patients undergoing oardiac surgical procedures could reduce blood loss significantly, but did not increase the risk of mortality or major complications.