We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Early postoperative care is a critical factor in determining successful outcomes following cardiac surgery. With increasing pressure for efficiency while ensuring patient safety is maintained, it is vital that healthcare professionals are familiar with the pathways and protocols designed to allow for rapid recovery of patients. At the same time it is important that complications are detected early, escalated appropriately and intervened upon in a timely fashion.
This chapter describes the coagulation pathway, the pharmacology of heparin, monitoring of anticoagulation status, problems associated with heparin usage, alternatives to heparin, the reversal of anticoagulation following termination of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and the prevention and management of bleeding. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) remains the standard anticoagulant for CBP for several reasons. Activated clotting time (ACT) is a functional assay of heparin anticoagulation and is the most widely employed test. Thrombocytopenia can occur after CPB due to dilution of blood volume with the extracorporeal circuit volume and platelet consumption or sequestration. Platelet function impairment is considered to be the main hemostatic defect during CPB. The synthetic antifibrinolytic agents ε-aminocaparoic acid (EACA) and tranexamic acid (TA) bind to lysine binding sites in both plasminogen and plasmin and produce a structural change. This prevents the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin and also prevents the activation of plasmin.