Open Heart Surgery in Patient with Incidentally Detected Cold Agglutinin: A case report / 대한흉부외과학회지

ABSTRACT

Open heart surgery with hypothermia in patients with cold agglutinin can cause severe complications by hemolysis and hemagglutination of red blood cells. A 41 year-old male patient with mitral stenosis was admitted due to fever and cough. After antibiotics treatment, he was scheduled to undergo mitral valve replacement. In the operation room, we found agglutination of blood cardioplegia during lowering temperature of cardioplegia. And then, the cardioplegia was changed to warm cardioplegia and the operation was performed under normothermia due to the suspicion of the cold reactive protein. The operation was performed uneventfully. Postoperatively, cold agglutinin was confirmed by immunochemistry of the patient's serum.