German research: All heart surgery patients may face risk of retained blood syndrome

Though it has long been believed that only high-risk patients are susceptible to developing retained blood syndrome after heart surgery, new research from Germany suggests all heart surgery patients can be at risk of developing the condition.

The study, presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s 46th annual meeting in Honolulu, was conducted by researchers at the Charité Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, according to a statement. Their major finding was that drainage catheters inserted into patients post-heart surgery often have high failure rates because of clogging, which then results in retained blood syndrome.

“This study sheds further light on the likelihood of retained blood and related complications after heart surgery, which will help prevention strategies to be further developed,” said Ed Boyle, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon and the founder and chairman of ClearFlow, a medical device company based in Anaheim, California, in a statement.

Researchers examined data from more than 6,900 cardiovascular surgery patients and found that though the risk of developing retained blood syndrome is higher in patients that are already suffering from complications, the absence of them does not eliminate the chance of developing the condition.

“These data underscore that there are significant opportunities to further reduce the costs and complications of retained blood in patients recovering from heart surgery,” said Paul Molloy, CEO of ClearFlow, in a statement. “This reinforces the approach that prevention of retained blood is preferable to treating it after it occurs, and helps hospitals develop protocols and quality improvement programs to optimally do so.”