Characteristics Associated With Mortality in 372 Patients Receiving Low-Dose Recombinant Factor VIIa (rFVIIa) for Cardiac Surgical Bleeding.

OBJECTIVE: Activated recombinant factor VII (rFVIIa) has been used to treat cardiac surgical bleeding in an off-label manner. This observational report analyzes the outcomes with use of a low dose and early administration of rFVIIa for cardiac surgical bleeding. DESIGN: A retrospective, observational study. SETTING: Single-center, tertiary care cardiothoracic surgical setting. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 6,862 patients underwent cardiac surgery from January 2012 to January 2018. Of those, 372 patients received rFVIIa perioperatively. INTERVENTIONS: An institutional policy directed low-dose, incremental aliquots of intravenous rFVIIa (0.5-1 mg). Characteristics and outcomes were compared among patients who survived (n = 328) and patients who died (n = 44). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The median dose of rFVIIa was low at 13.29 µg/kg. Higher doses were given to patients who died (15.79 µg/kg v 12.99 µg/kg; p = 0.0133). Patients who died received more blood and component transfusions (median 9 products in those who died v 6 products in survivors; p = 0.0022), although the median transfusion requirement for all patients was 6 units per patient. The rate of reoperation was not different in the 2 groups. Mortality was associated with emergent/urgent surgical procedures (p = 0.0282), type of surgical procedure with aortic procedures being highest risk (p = 0.0014), cardiogenic shock (p = 0.0028), postoperative renal failure (p = 0.0035), postoperative cardiac arrest (p = 0.0006), and ischemic stroke (p = 0.0084). CONCLUSION: Mortality after life-threatening cardiac surgical bleeding treated with rFVIIa was more common in aortic procedures and emergent and urgent surgeries. Lower doses of rFVIIa than previously reported may achieve bleeding cessation because overall blood component transfusions were low in this cohort.