Fibrinolysis and disseminated intravascular coagulation in open heart sergery.

Fibrinolysis and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) have been implicated as the cause or contributing mechanisms for hemorrhage during and after cardiopulmonary bypass. Even when unassociated with hemorrhage, both processes have been thought to be common occurences during open heart surgery. In order to measure the degree to which these mechanisms occur, fibrin split products (FSP) were measured simultaneously in blood and chest tube drainage of open heart surgical patients. In addition, serial measurements of platelets and fibrinogen were also measured in the blood of these patients. It is concluded that fibrinolysis invariably occurs to a high degree in the chest postoperatively but with few systemic manifestations and that fibrinolysis and/or DIC are rare causes of a hemorrhagic diathesis after cardiopulmonary bypass.