News Release

Canadian 'First' in Heart Surgery

Fewer Transfusion, Improved Patient Outcomes

Mississauga, Ontario, March 30, 2004 - Canada’s first cardiac surgery using new state-of-the-art pump technology has been performed at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga. Doctors expect the new pump bypass technology will mean far better patient outcomes and reduced stays in hospital.

The latest heart-lung bypass machine dramatically reduces the need for blood transfusions and has been called “the greatest advance in pump technology in the last decade”. Trillium expects to perform about 200 cardiac bypass operations this year using the new mini-pump, which is tiny compared to a conventional cardiopulmonary bypass machine.

“It not only packs the technology of the conventional Volkswagen-sized heart and lung machine into a unit the size of a blender, but it will offer better patient outcomes and improve patient access to surgery,” said Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Trillium and one of three cardiac surgeons who have operated while using the mini-pump.

Dr. Bhatnagar expects that use of the mini-pump during surgery will lead to reduced hospital stay-lengths as patients recover more quickly. That, in turn, will allow Trillium to treat more people needing bypass surgery than otherwise would have been possible.

Because the mini-pump has less tubing and no reservoir, there is little or no blood dilution, reducing the need for transfusions during and after surgery. Dr. Bhatnagar expects the number of transfusions can be cut in half. Trillium’s first mini-pump patient was a 77-year-old man with coronary artery disease. “He came through with flying colours and required no blood transfusions at all,” said Dr. Bhatnagar.

The doctor says a reduction in the number of transfusions will have a significant impact on patient outcomes. Dr. Bhatnagar said that patients who receive transfusions have a 70-per-cent higher risk of death than those who do not. Fewer transfusions reduces the stress on a patient’s immune and other systems, cuts the risk of infection, and the risk of post-operative complications.

A 1996 study (in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery) on the effects of transfusion on lengths of hospital stays shows that stays can increase by 1 to 1 ½ days when patients receive one to two units of transfused blood. The same study shows that post-operative complications increase from 27 to 64 per cent as transfusions increase from zero units to more than five units transfused during and after an operation.

Trillium Health Centre and Baptist Medical Centre in Birmingham, Alabama, are the first hospitals in North America to use mini-pump bypass technology. In Europe, about 15 centres are using mini-pump machines.

Use of the mini-pump is the latest innovation for Trillium, a leader in cardiac care in Canada. The hospital, with sites in Mississauga and Etobicoke, performs more than 7,000 heart-related surgeries and procedures a year.

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Roula Giannidis
Public Relations Officer
(905) 848-7580, extension 2708

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