Prevalence and Causes of Mediastinal Reexploration for Excessive Bleeding after Cardiac Surgery Procedures

Introduction: Postoperative bleeding in cardiac surgery is not an uncommon complication and can be evaluated with surgical and nonsurgical causes. Although any type of coagulopathy should be treated before, during, and after the surgical procedure, cardiac surgeons should have perfect surgical techniques for step by step hemostasis to minimize blood loss. Materials and Method: This retrospective study was conducted on 85 patients out of 1075 (0.07%) ones required Reexploration of the Mediastinal to control the excessive bleeding after different cardiac procedures in Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad of Iran from January 2018 to January 2019. Results: Out of 85 patients who required Mediastinal Reexploration, 61 (71%) and 24(29%) patients underwent the off-pump procedure and cardiopulmonary bypass, respectively. The most common sites for surgical bleeding in the order were missed branches of left internal mammary artery / saphenous vein graft (65%), proximal or distal coronary anastomosis (18%), and aortic /atrial suture line (16%). The death in patients under study was 7 (8%), half of which were not related to Mediastinal Reexploration. Conclusion: The possibility of postoperative bleeding can be minimized through correction of clotting factor deficiencies, improvement of surgical techniques in hemostasis.