Point-of-care coagulation management during surgery with minimal invasive extracorporeal circulation

Contemporary advances in cardiac surgery have markedly improved clinical outcomes. However, cardiac surgery is still hampered by considerable morbidity and subsequent mortality, especially in complex and high-risk procedures, as evidenced in the largest cardiac surgery registry (1). A strong contributing factor is postoperative coagulation derangement mainly due to the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The resultant acute postoperative bleeding is a life-threatening major resource-consuming complication that impairs outcome (2).