Prophylactic arch replacement during aortic root and ascending aortic surgery in patients with bicuspid aortic valve is not supported. Our data do not support long-term surveillance of the rest of the aorta in this population.

This pilot study shows that preoperative multiplate testing may be a better predictor of platelet dysfunction and the resultant blood loss following cardiac surgery.

INTRODUCTIONThe peak incidence of venous thrombo-embolism (VTE) occurs 3 weeks following hip arthroplasty surgery and current guidelines proposing VTE prophylaxis continuing for 4 weeks after surgery. This study first compares the duration of treatment and satisfaction between patients prescribed low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) and rivaroxaban, a new oral Factor Xa inhibitor, following elective hip arthroplasty; and second, surveys the duration of LMWH use in other units. SUBJECTS AND METHODS An international survey detailing the use of LMWH was performed. A prospective audit was performed of 100 hip replacements, with 50 prescribed 40 mg once daily of subcutaneous enoxaparin and subsequently 50 patients prescribed 10 mg once daily of oral rivaroxaban. The duration of treatment, patient satisfaction and complications for both cohorts was quantified and compared against published evidence-based guidelines. RESULTS The survey demonstrated that four out of 39 (10.2%) units that routinely prescribe LMWH do so for at least 4 weeks following surgery. The audit demonstrated that rivaroxaban afforded a superior mean duration of postoperative VTE prophylaxis (35 days vs 5.4 days; P < 0.05) and superior patient satisfaction. There was no difference in the incidence of bleeding, wound infection or thrombotic complications. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that patients are exposed to an increased VTE risk following hip replacement surgery due to the inadequate prescription of LMWH. This is poor clinical practice, contrary to current evidence-based guidelines and has potential medicolegal implications. The prescription of rivaroxaban affords a superior patient compliance compared with subcutaneous LMWH, thus ensuring that patients receive VTE prophylaxis for the current recommend period of time.

Background Platelet dysfunction is a common cause of bleeding, perioperative blood transfusion, and surgical re-exploration in cardiac surgical patients. We evaluated the effect of incorporating a platelet function analyzer utilizing impedance aggregometry (Multiplate, Roche, Munich, Germany) into our local transfusion algorithm on the rate of platelet transfusion and postoperative blood loss in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Methods Data were collected on patients undergoing CABG surgery from January 2015 to April 2017. Patients who underwent surgery before and after introduction of this algorithm were classified into prealgorithm and postalgorithm groups, respectively. The primary outcome was the rate of platelet transfusion before and after implementation of the Multiplate-based transfusion algorithm. Secondary outcomes included transfusion rate of packed red blood cells, postoperative blood loss at 12 and 24 hours, length of stay in the intensive care unit, and the hospital and mortality. Results A total of 726 patients were included in this analysis with 360 and 366 patients in the pre- and postalgorithm groups, respectively. Transfusion rates of platelets (p = 0.01) and packed red blood cells (p = 0.0004) were significantly lower following introduction of the algorithm in patients (n = 257) who had insufficient time to withhold antiplatelet agents. Receiver operating characteristic curves defined optimal cutoff points of arachidonic acid and adenosine diphosphate assays on the Multiplate to predict future platelet transfusion were 23AU and 43AU, respectively. Conclusions The introduction of a Multiplate-based platelet transfusion algorithm showed a statistically significant reduction in the administration of platelets to patients undergoing urgent CABG surgery.

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