Effect of low vs high haemoglobin transfusion trigger on cardiac output in patients undergoing elective vascular surgery: Post-hoc analysis of a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND

During vascular surgery, restricted red-cell transfusion reduces frontal lobe oxygen (ScO2 ) saturation as determined by near-infrared spectroscopy. We evaluated whether inadequate increase in cardiac output (CO) following haemodilution explains reduction in ScO2 .

METHODS

This is a post-hoc analysis of data from the Transfusion in Vascular surgery (TV) Trial where patients were randomized on haemoglobin drop below 9.7 g/dL to red-cell transfusion at haemoglobin below 8.0 (low-trigger) vs 9.7 g/dL (high-trigger). Fluid administration was guided by optimizing stroke volume. We compared mean intraoperative levels of CO, haemoglobin, oxygen delivery, and CO at nadir ScO2 with linear regression adjusted for age, operation type and baseline. Data for 46 patients randomized before end of surgery were included for analysis.

RESULTS

The low-trigger resulted in a 7.1% lower mean intraoperative haemoglobin level (mean difference, -0.74 g/dL; P < .001) and reduced volume of red-cell transfused (median [inter-quartile range], 0 [0-300] vs 450 mL [300-675]; P < .001) compared with the high-trigger group. Mean CO during surgery was numerically 7.3% higher in the low-trigger compared with the high-trigger group (mean difference, 0.36 L/min; 95% confidence interval (CI.95), -0.05 to 0.78; P = .092; n = 42). At the nadir ScO2 -level, CO was 11.9% higher in the low-trigger group (mean difference, 0.58 L/min; CI.95, 0.10-1.07; P = .024). No difference in oxygen delivery was detected between trial groups (MD, 1.39 dLO2 /min; CI.95, -6.16 to 8.93; P = .721).

CONCLUSION

Vascular surgical patients exposed to restrictive RBC transfusion elicit the expected increase in CO making it unlikely that their potentially limited cardiac capacity explains the associated ScO2 decrease.