Centrifugal Pumping: The Patient Outcome Benefits Following Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

The increased use of the centrifugal pump during coronary artery bypass surgery has been based primarily on theoretical data related to patient safety. There is minimal evidence suggesting improved outcome when compared to the traditional roller pump technology. We prospectively randomized 200 patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting into centrifugal pump (100 patients) and roller pump (100 patients) groups to compare differences in blood product usage, complication rate, length of stay and net hospital financial balance. Moderate hypothermic bypass was employed on all patients. Cardiopulmonary bypass circuits were similar in both groups with the exception of the arterial pump. Both groups were statistically identical in regard to age, sex, surgeon, complications, total pump time, aortic cross clamp time, prebypass hematocrit and platelet count. The twenty-four hour postoperative hematocrits, platelet counts, red blood cell requirements, blood loss and mortality (2%) were identical in both groups. The centrifugal pump patients had less 24 hour weight gain than their peers in the roller pump group (p=0.05) The length of stay and net hospital financial balance were also statistically favored in the centrifugal pump group (p<0.05). These latter findings were significant when studied in all payors and coronary artery bypass diagnostic related group classifications. Although the mechanism for improvement in length of stay and net hospital financial balance cannot fully be explained, the ramifications in an increasingly cost conscious environment are obvious.