Transfusion of blood products in off-pump coronary artery bypass and conventional coronary artery revascularization. A prospective randomized study.

Introduction: There has been a growing interest in off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) grafting in recent years. Beating-heart surgery is believed to be less invasive as it allows the side effects of extracorporeal circulation to be avoided.
The Aim of the Study: The aim of the study was to compare blood product transfusion rates between two groups of patients undergoing surgery for ischemic heart disease with either the off-pump technique or using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).
Material and Methods: There were 152 patients enrolled in the prospective randomized study. All procedures were elective. There were 84 patients (62 men and 20 women) at the mean age of 63.74 ± 7 years who underwent OPCAB (group I), and 68 patients (54 men and 14 women) at the mean age of 63.51 ± 6 years who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass (group II).
Results: There were no perioperative deaths. The mean number of grafts was 2.27 ± 0.3 (OPCAB group) and 2.63 ± 0.6 (CPB group) (p < 0.05). The mean number of packed red blood cells transfused in the OPCAB group was 2.31 ± 0.18 units/patient and 3.94 ± 0.30 units/patient in the CPB group (p < 0.05). The mean number of fresh frozen plasma units transfused was 1.13 ± 0.13 in the OPCAB group vs. 1.57 ± 0.15 in the CPB group (p < 0.05). There were 12 patients (14%) in the OPCAB group who had no transfusion.
Conclusions: One of the most important advantages of the OPCAB technique is that it makes it possible to reduce the rate of blood product transfusions.