A Comparison of Heparin and New Anticoagulants for Cardiopulmonary Bypass Surgery

Heparin is still the major anticoagulant of choice during CPB, but it may cause thrombocytopenia and severe bleeding in patients. In light of these complications, the devel opment of new anticoagulant drugs seemed to be necessary for these patients. Many experimental studies focused on r-hirudin, which presented a less hemorrhagic effect than heparin. How ever, neither antagonist has been shown to reverse this effect.