Cardiac surgery is at high risk of intraoperative bleeding. Inhibitors of the P2Y12 platelet receptor, such as ticagrelor, are recommended in patients with acute coronary stroke (ACS) to reduce the incidence of major cardiovascular events. Nevertheless, some patients may require coronary artery bypass graft under cardiac bypass after ticagrelor administration. This administration within 48 hours prior to surgery is associated with a significant increase in bleeding and related poor outcomes, notably because platelet transfusion fails to reverse ticagrelor induced platelet dysfunction. Conversely, waiting several days to plan surgery, in the idea of clearing blood from ticagrelor, exposes to a risk of ischemic recurrence.
Another situation where ticagrelor administration may impend prognosis is emergent aortic surgeries, including aortic dissection or aneurysm rupture. Ticagrelor is frequently administrated because symptoms can mimic ACS, but it may increase bleeding and transfusion by at least 50%.
Several case reports and cohorts described blood hemadsorption, using the Cytosorb® blood purification system (Cytosorb®ents, USA) as a reversal therapy for ticagrelor, reducing bleeding. Cytosorb® is a polymeric beads system with a large exchange surface, enabling the adsorption and removal of molecules of intermediate sizes (\< 60 kDa). It has been described to reduce the plasma levels of ticagrelor, with a removal up to 75% after 60 min. It can be connected directly to the heart-lung machine. Its use during cardiac bypass is simple and has not described to induce additional hemolysis.
We hypothesize that the use of Cytosorb® hemoadsorption during cardiac bypass would reduce the incidence of moderate to massive bleeding in patients receiving ticagrelor within 48 hours prior to surgery.