Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Jul 26, 2015; 7(7): 377-382
Published online Jul 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i7.377
Published online Jul 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i7.377
Hemoglobin optimization and transfusion strategies in patients undergoing cardiac surgery
Mahdi Najafi, Department of Anesthesiology, Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1411713138, Iran
David Faraoni, Department of Anesthesiology, Peri-operative and Pain Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to this editorial.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Mahdi Najafi, Department of Anesthesiology, Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, North Karegar Street, Tehran 1411713138, Iran. najafik@sina.tums.ac.ir
Telephone: +98-21-88029674 Fax: +98-21-88029724
Received: February 21, 2015
Peer-review started: February 22, 2015
First decision: March 20, 2015
Revised: April 7, 2015
Accepted: May 5, 2015
Article in press: May 6, 2015
Published online: July 26, 2015
Processing time: 164 Days and 0.7 Hours
Peer-review started: February 22, 2015
First decision: March 20, 2015
Revised: April 7, 2015
Accepted: May 5, 2015
Article in press: May 6, 2015
Published online: July 26, 2015
Processing time: 164 Days and 0.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Anemia and red blood cells transfusion are common during cardiac surgery, and could be associated with adverse reactions. Preoperative hemoglobin optimization through the identification and treatment of anemia and the definition of standardized transfusion algorithm using restrictive transfusion triggers play a central role in the development of Patient Blood Management programs. However, further researches are needed to better define transfusion triggers, based on pathophysiological indices, rather than single hemoglobin thresholds.