Reduced postoperative blood loss and transfusion requirement after beating-heart coronary operations: a prospective randomized study.

OBJECTIVE: Coronary artery bypass grafting on the beating heart through median sternotomy is a relatively new treatment, which allows multiple revascularization without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. A prospective randomized study was designed to investigate the effect of coronary bypass with or without cardiopulmonary bypass on postoperative blood loss and transfusion requirement. METHODS: Two hundred patients with coronary artery disease were prospectively randomized to (1) on-pump treatment with conventional cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegic arrest and (2) off-pump treatment on the beating heart. Postoperative blood loss identified as total chest tube drainage, transfusion requirement, and related costs together with hematologic indices and clotting profiles were analyzed. RESULTS: There was no difference between the groups with respect to preoperative and intraoperative patient variables. The mean ratio of postoperative blood loss and 95% confidence interval between groups was 1.64 and 1.39 to 1.94, respectively, suggesting on average a postoperative blood loss 1.6 times higher in the on-pump group compared with the off-pump group. Seventy-seven patients in the off-pump group required no blood transfusion compared with only 48 in the on-pump group (P <.01). Furthermore, less than 5% of patients in the on-pump group required fresh frozen plasma and platelet transfusion compared with 30% and 25%, respectively, in the on-pump group (both P <.05). Mean transfusion cost per patient was higher in the on-pump compared with that in the off-pump group ($184.8 +/- $35.2 vs $21.47 +/- $6.9, P <.01). CONCLUSIONS: Coronary artery bypass grafting on the beating heart is associated with a significant reduction in postoperative blood loss, transfusion requirement, and transfusion-related cost when compared with conventional revascularization with cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegic arrest.

Asymptomatic congenital oesophageal cyst infiltrating the lung: an unusual complication.

An asymptomatic 14-year-old boy presented with minor chest trauma. Chest X-ray showed opacity in the upper zone of the left lung. Further investigations with magnetic resonance imaging showed it to be a posterior mediastinal mass with a fistula to the lung, along with cystic changes in the left upper lobe of lung. Left upper lobectomy with excision of the mass was performed. Histological examination later showed an oesophageal duplication cyst with a fistula to the left upper lobe of the lung. We present this unusual complication of an oesophageal cyst infiltrating the lung in an asymptomatic child.