Recombinant human erythropoietin administration in open heart surgery

Abstract

Despite the recent developments in blood conservation techniques, postoperative anemia and multiple blood transfusions are still important problems in cardiac surgery. Autologous donation and reusing of shed blood are the frequently used techniques to reduce banked blood transfusion. During the last few years there have been some re¬ports indicating that multiple "Recombinant Human Erythropoietin (r-Hu EPO)" infusions starting at least two weeks before operation, induced erythropoiesis. We aimed to reduce the risk of adverse reactions of high doses of r-Hu EPO and the period of hospitalisation. Thus we investigated the effect of erythropoietin infusion with single low dose (100 ILJ/kg) on erythropoiesis admi¬nistered one week before surgery. Twentyfive patients received r-Hu EPO and 28 patients formed the control group. In the r-Hu EPO group the mean hemoglobin value had increased significantly on the morning of operation. It was also significantly higher than it was in the control group (14.5 ± 0.52 gr/dl in the EPO group and 12.4 ± 0.65 in the control group) (p