Excessive requirement for heparin during cardiac surgery.

A case of excessive heparin requirement during cardiopulmonary bypass is reported. A patient with sepsis secondary to a myocardial abscess require 13.5 mg x kg-1 of heparin to increase his activated coagulation time to a therapeutic level. This phenomenon might be due to individual variability, lupus vasculitis, septicaemia, repeated thromboembolic phenomenon with hypercoagulable state, or chronic disseminated intravascular coagulation with partial antithrombin deficiency.