ORIGINAL ARTICLE   Free access

Minerva Anestesiologica 2021 January;87(1):35-42

DOI: 10.23736/S0375-9393.20.14525-5

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Hemoadsorption: effective in reducing circulating fragments of the endothelial glycocalyx during cardiopulmonary bypass in patients undergoing on-pump cardiac surgery?

Andreas HOHN ^{1, 2, 3} ✉, Andreas BAUMANN ⁴, Eva PIETROSCHINSKY ^{1, 2}, Jeremy FRANKLIN ⁵, Anja ILLERHAUS ^{1, 6}, Dirk BUCHWALD ⁷, Jochen HINKELBEIN ^{1, 2}, Peter K. ZAHN ⁴, Thorsten ANNECKE ^{1, 2, 8}

¹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; ² Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Cologne University Hospital, Cologne, Germany; ³ Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Kliniken Maria Hilf GmbH, Moenchengladbach, Germany; ⁴ Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care, Palliative Care and Pain Medicine, BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; ⁵ Institute of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Epidemiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; ⁶ Department of Dermatology, Cologne University Hospital, Cologne, Germany; ⁷ Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; ⁸ Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Kliniken der Stadt Köln GmbH, University of Witten Herdecke, Cologne, Germany

BACKGROUND: The vascular endothelial glycocalyx is susceptible to ischemia and hypoxia. Released soluble components of the endothelial glycocalyx (EG) have been identified as potential damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) able to enhance an ongoing inflammatory response. Shedding of the EG has been associated with released atrial-natriuretic peptide (ANP) during cardiac surgery procedures. A novel hemoadsorption technique (CytoSorb^®) has been shown to effectively remove molecules up to 55 kDa unspecifically from circulation. It is not known whether ANP or glycocalyx components can be removed successfully by this technique.
METHODS: In 15 patients undergoing on-pump cardiac surgery, the hemoadsorption device was integrated in the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit. Pre- and post-adsorber concentrations of ANP, heparan sulphate (HEP), syndecan-1 (SYN) and hyaluronan (HYA) were measured at 10 (T1), 30 (T2), and 60 (T3) minutes after aortic cross-clamping and complete CPB.
RESULTS: Hemoadsorption significantly reduced mean HEP concentrations (-157.5 [333.4] ng/mL; P<0.001) post adsorber. For ANP and SYN no statistically significant changes were detected whereas mean [SD] HYA concentrations even increased significantly (+21.6 [43.0] ng/mL; P<0.001) post adsorber.
CONCLUSIONS: In this study representing a real-life scenario, we could demonstrate that the novel hemoadsorption device (CytoSorb^®) was able to effectively adsorb HEP from the circulation if integrated in a CPB circuit. However, blood concentrations of HYA, SYN, and ANP could not be reduced during CPB in our investigation.

KEY WORDS: Glycocalyx; Cardiac surgical procedures; Cardiopulmonary bypass