CABG-procedures in patients with pretreatment with the GPIIb/IIIa-receptor antagonist tirofiban (Aggrastat ©): Modification of perioperative management?

Abstract

In order to investigate the effects of tirofiban administration in cardiac surgery all patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) which received this drug preoperatively between 1/2002 and 6/2005 ( n = 232) were studied. Three groups regarding the perioperative administration of antifibrinolytic drugs were compared: group A = controls ( n = 70), group B = aprotinin ( n = 110), group C = tranexamic acid ( n = 52) Furthermore we could differ the patients depending on the time when tirofiban was stopped (< 2 h, 2–4 h, > 4 h preoperatively). The postoperative blood loss was significantly higher in all tirofiban-patients (A–C) compared to a group of CABG-patients without tirofiban. The best results concerning blood loss, transfusion of red cell concentrates (rcc), fresh frozen plasma (ffp) and incidence of re-sternotomy could be found in patients with aprotinin. A further significant improvement could be seen in patients who received platelets, intraoperative hemofiltration and in which tirofiban was stopped > 4 h preoperatively. We conclude that by early presurgical discontinuing of tirofiban-therapy and slight modifications of the perioperative management bleeding complications can significantly be reduced.