All Patients at Risk of Retained Blood Syndrome After Heart Surgery, New Study Reveals

Clinical study results presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) 46th Annual Critical Care Congress last month suggest that all heart surgery patients are at risk for Retained Blood Syndrome, not just high-risk patients, as previously assumed. All patients having heart surgery are required to have drainage catheters to remove shed blood from around the heart and lungs in the early hours of recovery following surgery. Evidence suggests that these drainage catheters, or chest tubes, have a high failure rate due to clogging, leading to a condition better known as Retained Blood Syndrome (RBS).
 
Cardiac anesthesia investigators from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany), Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, presented data from an investigation assessing whether risk factors for bleeding or bleeding itself contribute to the predictability of the development of retained blood.
 
Previous studies have already established that retained blood has a statistically significant impact on post-surgery patients, including leading to a higher likelihood of mortality, longer ICU lengths of stay, four times higher infection rates and increased cost of care. The new data revealed that while the risk of bleeding and bleeding itself appear to predict a higher incidence of RBS-related complications, the absence of these factors do not eliminate the risk of complications. The data was based on a study of 6,909 cardiovascular surgery patients. Investigators concluded that remediation efforts, while focused on the highest risk patients for bleeding, may also need to include lower risk patients to adequately address this problem.
 
“This study sheds further light on the likelihood of retained blood and related complications after heart surgery, which will help prevention strategies to be further developed,” said Ed Boyle, M.D., cardiothoracic surgeon and founder and chairman of ClearFlow Inc., a medical device company based in Anaheim, Calif. ClearFlow manufactures the PleuraFlow Active Clearance Technology (ACT) System, the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared device available that enables caregivers to proactively prevent or minimize chest tube occlusions and reduce retained blood.

Watch the video below to learn more about PleuraFlow:


 

“These data underscore that there are significant opportunities to further reduce the costs and complications of retained blood in patients recovering from heart surgery,” said Paul Molloy, CEO of ClearFlow. “This reinforces the approach that prevention of retained blood is preferable to treating it after it occurs, and helps hospitals develop protocols and quality improvement programs to optimally do so.”
 
The PleuraFlow Active Clearance Technology System is approved for use in the United States, Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and other countries in Asia and the Middle East.
 
ClearFlow developed a patented active blood and fluid evacuation system to speed recovery, reduce complications and lower healthcare costs related to medical tube obstruction.