SynthesisJournal of cardiothoracic surgery2025
Continuous postoperative pericardial flushing to reduce the risk of postoperative bleeding after elective adult cardiac surgery - a study-level meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of cardiothoracic surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRetained blood syndrome contributes to higher morbidity and mortality post cardiac surgery. We investigate the benefits of continuous postoperative pericardial flushing (CPPF) over standard care chest drainage in elective adult cardiac surgery patients.
methodsVarious online databases were screened for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observations studies comparing CPPF to standard care. PRIMARY OUTCOMES: 12-hour and total blood loss, cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and aortic cross-clamp (ACC) times; surgical re-intervention for bleeding, mortality, sternal wound infections and pericardial or pleural fluid re-accumulation at discharge. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: perioperative blood transfusion, time to extubation and total hospital stay.
results586 patients from four studies with matched characteristics were included. CPPF was associated with less blood loss at 12 h and in total: Odds Ratio (OR) (95% CI) 0.71 (-0.91 to 0.51) and 0.49 (-0.67 to -0.32) (both p < 0.00001). CPPF had lower need for transfusion of blood products RR 0.57 (0.36-0.89) (p = 0.01)). There were no significant differences in surgical re-intervention rates, overall mortality, CPB, ACC times, length of hospital stay, time until extubation or sternal wound infections. Risk of pericardial or pleural fluid re-accumulation was lower in the CPPF groups RR 0.88 (0.80-0.97) (p = 0.01).
conclusionsCPPF has shown promising results in reducing postoperative blood loss and fluid re-accumulation with fewer blood transfusions, and lower surgical re-intervention rates across all ranges of cardiac surgical procedures. It is safe, feasible and effective in all types of cardiac surgery, however further studies are needed to validate these findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.