Administration of fibrinogen concentrate combined with prothrombin complex maintains hemostasis in children undergoing congenital heart repair (a long‐term propensity score‐matched study)

BACKGROUND: Bleeding is a common problem in children with congenital heart disease undergoing major cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Little is known about optimal management with blood products. OBJECTIVE: To investigate clinical outcome and hemostatic effects of fibrinogen concentrate (FC) in combination with prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) versus standard treatment with fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in children undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS: For this single‐institution cohort study, data on 525 children were analyzed. Propensity score matching in 210 children was applied to reduce the impact of various baseline characteristics. RESULTS: Three children treated with FC/PCC developed surgical site bleeding requiring surgical revision. One child developed central venous line‐related thrombosis. Blood loss through chest tube drainage was independent of FC/PCC. Coagulation abnormalities were not present in any of these children. Time to extubation and ICU stay did not differ. In the FC/PCC group, children received (median, Q1, Q3) 52 mg/kg (32, 83) FC and 28IU/kg (13, 44) PCC. Fibrinogen concentration was comparable at baseline. On admission to the ICU, fibrinogen was higher in children receiving FC/PCC, namely, 232 mg/dL (196, 280), than in children receiving FFP (186 mg/dL, 149, 224; P < .001). On discharge from the ICU, values did not differ ((FC/PCC 416 mg/dL (288, 501)), non‐FC/PCC 418 mg/dL (272, 585; P = 1.000)). CONCLUSION: FC/PCC was well tolerated and permitted hemostasis to be maintained, even in the very young. We were not able to detect a signal for inferiority of this treatment. We conclude that FC/PCC can safely replace FFP.