Newly Donated Blood Helps Reduce Post-Operative Complications During Heart Surgery

Patients undergoing heart surgery who received newly donated blood are likely to have significantly fewer post-operative complications than those who received blood that's been donated more than two weeks before surgery, according to recent findings presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.

For the study, researchers examined records at the New Brunswick Heart Centre (NBHC) in Saint John for non-emergency heart surgeries performed almost nine years from January 3005 to September 2013 on patients who received red blood cells either during their surgery or afterwards and who stayed in hospital less than 30 days.

For 2015 patients, just about over half (1,052) received only "new" blood, donated within 14 days of the transfusion, while the rest received only or some "old" blood, donated more than 14 days before. Canadian protocols allow blood to be stored and used for up to six weeks after it is donated.

Yet after adjusting for differences in age, sex and other health conditions between the two groups of patients, they found that those given only new blood included fewer in-hospital complications, such as re-operation for bleeding, ventilation longer than 24 hours, infection, renal failure and death. Patients who received new blood also did better than those who received some or old blood, also.

"The findings show that we need to pay attention to the age of the blood we give cardiac surgery patients," says Dr. Ansar Hassan of the department of cardiac surgery at NBHC, the study's senior author.

Given the benefits to patients of timely cardiac surgery, Dr. Hassan believes surgeries should not be postponed if new blood is not available.

"Perhaps more importantly, we need new studies to determine what is driving this relationship between the age of blood and the outcomes we are seeing."

Heart disease and stroke is the leading cause of hospitalization in Canada, accounting for almost 17 per cent of total hospitalizations. More than 25,000 cardiac surgeries are performed in Canada each year. These procedures - including coronary artery bypasses, valve replacements and heart transplants - save and extend the lives of thousands of Canadians every year.

"Cardiac surgery creates heart disease survivors," says Dr. Beth Abramson, Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson, author of Heart Health for Canadians. "We need to ensure outcomes are as successful as possible. This study is an important reminder for Canadians to donate blood so that blood products are available for these surgeries."