The Clinical Effects of Leukocyte-Depleting Filter on Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Park, Kyung Taek; Choi, Seok Cheol; Choi, Kook Lyeol; Jeong, Seok Mok; Choi, Kang Joo; Kim, Yang Weon; Jung, Shin Hyun; Cho, Kwang Hyun

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It has been recognized that systemic inflammatory reaction and oxygen free radical formed by activated leukocyte in the procedure of cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) frequently produce postoperative cardiac and pulmonary dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of leukocyte-depleting filters in the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit for patients undergoing open heart surgery(OHS). MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study involved 15 patients who underwent OHS with a Leukoguard-6 leukocyte filter placed in the arterial limbs of the bypass circuit(filter group, n=15) and 15 patients who did not have the filter(control group, n=15). We analyzed the differences between the groups in intraoperative changes of peripheral blood leukocyte and platelet counts, pre- and postbypass changes of malondialdehyde(MDA), troponin-T(TnT), 5'-nucleotidase(5'-NT) in coronary sinus blood, spontaneous recovery rate of heart beat after CPB, pre-and postoperative cardiac index(CI) and pulmonary vascular resistance(PVR), and the amounts of postoperative bleeding and sternal wound complication. RESULT: During CPB, total leukocyte count of the filter group(9,567 +/- 842/mm3) was significantly less than that of the control group(13,573 +/- 1,167/mm3) (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference in platelet count between the groups. Postoperative levels of MDA(3.78 +/- 0.32 micromole/L vs 5.86 +/- 0.65 micromole/L, p<0.01), TnT(0.40 +/- 0.04 ng/mL vs 0.59 +/- 0.08 ng/mL, p<0.05) and 5'-NT(3.88 +/- 0.61 U/L vs 5.80 +/- 0.90 U/L, p<0.05) were all significantly lower in the filter group than the control group. Postoperative CI was higher in the filter group than the control group(3.26 +/- 0.18 L/m2/min vs 2.75 +/- 0.17 L/m2/min, p=0.05). PVR of the filter group was lower than that of the control group(65.87 +/- 7.59 dyne/sec/cm5 vs 110.80 +/- 12.22 dyne/sec/cm5, p<0.01). Spontaneous recovery rate of heart beat in the filter group was higher than that in the control group(12 patients vs 8 patients, p<0.05). Postoperative wound infection occurred in one case in the filter group and 4 case in the control group(p<0.05). Postoperative 24 hour blood loss of the filter group was more than that of the control group (614 +/- 107 mL vs 380 +/- 71 mL, p=0.05).
CONCLUSION
These data suggest that the leukocyte-depleting filter has beneficial effects on postoperative cardiac and pulmonary functions with diminution of reperfusion injury. However, bleeding tendency at early postoperative period is higher in the filter group than the control group and thus the further studies seem to be necessary at this point.