Management of bleeding in the postoperative cardiac patient

Bleeding in the postoperative cardiac surgical patient can be multifactorial. This chapter examines the preoperative and intraoperative risk factors for having significant postoperative bleeding. It also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of standard laboratory testing as well as point-of-care tests, such as thromboelastography (TEG) and thromboelastometry (ROTEM), in their diagnostic capabilities. Finally, we conclude with different treatment strategies in this challenging patient population along with diagnostic criteria of clinically significant postoperative bleeding and when to return to the operating room for re-exploration.