The Impact of Three Different Wash Solutions on Autotransfusion Products.

Many blood conservation techniques and strategies have been implemented to aid in decreasing the use of allogenic blood utilization during pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. Use of techniques, such as acute normovolemic hemodilution, retrograde autologous prime, venous autologous prime, and autotransfuion, may lead to a decrease in the need for allogenic blood products. Autotransfusion has become a standard of care for all cardiothoracic surgical procedures requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Although widely used, there is still debate over which wash solution will produce the most physiologically normal autotransfusion product. Pediatric patients can be at a higher risk for electrolyte imbalance intraoperatively and postoperatively. In an attempt to minimize this, we sought out to evaluate three different wash solutions and how they would affect the final autotransfusion product. This comparison consisted of three wash solutions; .9% sodium chloride, Normosol-R™, and Plasma-Lyte A. Based on the evaluation of all wash solutions, Plasma-Lyte A produced the most physiological normal final autotransfusion product in regards to electrolytes.

Bloodless Repair for a 3.6 Kilogram Transposition of the Great Arteries with Jehovah's Witness Faith.

Achieving pediatric cardiac surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) without allogeneic blood transfusion is challenging. There are many clinical and economic factors that point to the importance of avoiding blood transfusions. In some instances, honoring patients or parents beliefs may be the reason for avoiding blood transfusions. For example, patients or parents of the Jehovah's Witness faith refuse blood transfusion based on their religious beliefs. Over the last decade, our institution has seen a steady increase in our pediatric Jehovah's Witness patient population. Caring for these patients have allowed us to develop specific protocols that enable us to safely provide bloodless CPB in all of our patient populations. The success of such an approach to minimize the need for blood transfusions should not start in the operating room; it must include the preoperative period and the postoperative care by the critical care team in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU). A multidisciplinary team approach has to be in place with clear communication between the cardiologist, anesthesiologist, cardiac surgeon, perfusionist, and the cardiac intensivist. We present a case of a 7 day old male (3.6 kg) with a preoperative diagnosis of Transposition of the Great Arteries and intact ventricular septum who underwent an arterial switch procedure without the transfusion of any blood products throughout his entire hospital stay.