Introduction
Postoperative thrombocytopenia is common in cardiac surgery with
cardiopulmonary bypass, and its risk factors are unclear.
Methods
This retrospective study enrolled 3,175 adult patients undergoing valve
surgeries with cardiopulmonary bypass from January 1, 2017 to December 30,
2018 in our institute. Postoperative thrombocytopenia was defined as the
first postoperative platelet count below the 10
th
quantile in all
the enrolled patients. Outcomes between patients with and without
postoperative thrombocytopenia were compared. The primary outcome was
in-hospital mortality. Risk factors of postoperative thrombocytopenia were
assessed by logistic regression analysis.
Results
The 10
th
quantile of all enrolled patients
(75×10
9
/L) was defined as the threshold for
postoperative thrombocytopenia. In-hospital mortality was comparable between
thrombocytopenia and non-thrombocytopenia groups (0.9%
vs.
0.6%,
P
=0.434). Patients in the thrombocytopenia group had
higher rate of postoperative blood transfusion (5.9%
vs.
3.2%,
P
=0.014), more chest drainage volume (735 [550-1080]
vs.
560 [430-730] ml,
P
<0.001), and
higher incidence of acute kidney injury (12.3%
vs.
4.2%,
P
<0.001). Age > 60 years (odds ratio [OR] 2.25,
95% confidence interval [CI] 1.345-3.765,
P
=0.002],
preoperative thrombocytopenia (OR 18.671, 95% CI 13.649-25.542,
P
<0.001), and cardiopulmonary bypass time (OR 1.088,
95% CI 1.059-1.117,
P
<0.001) were positively
independently associated with postoperative thrombocytopenia. Body surface
area (BSA) (OR 0.247, 95% CI 0.114-0.538,
P
<0.001) and
isolated mitral valve surgery (OR 0.475, 95% CI 0.294-0.77) were negatively
independently associated with postoperative thrombocytopenia.
Conclusion
Positive predictors for thrombocytopenia after valve surgery included age
> 60 years, small BSA, preoperative thrombocytopenia, and cardiopulmonary
bypass time. BSA and isolated mitral valve surgery were negative
predictors.