Acquired mechanical hemolytic anemia, caused by dysfunction of implanted heart valves (with a description of clinical cases)
Nikolenko L.A.

Federal Center of Cardiovascular Surgery, Chelyabinsk

Surgical correction of the heart valves makes urgent the problem of postoperative anemia, which can have a different character. The course of the postoperative period in such patients largely depends on the possibility of developing the acquired mechanical hemolytic anemia. In connection with the improvement of the methodology of surgical interventions, as well as with the modernization of prosthetic heart valve (HV), cardiovascular risk in heart operations during the last decades has significantly decreased in all age groups. Using a new generation of prostheses has reduced the frequency of hemolytic anemia to 1%. In modern conditions, the most frequently expressed signs of hemolysis are caused by the prosthesis dysfunction, for example, due to the formation of para-valvular fistula. The destruction of erythrocytes with the development of hemolysis is associated with a violation of blood flow through the defective prosthesis and an increased damage to erythrocytes by the valves. The syndrome of mechanical hemolysis is confirmed by the detection the fragments of erythrocytes (Fragmentes Red Cell (FRC)) or schistocytes in the patient’s blood smear.

Key words: anemia, prosthetic heart valves, cardiovascular surgery, postoperative anemia, mechanical hemolysis, schistocytes.
For citation: Nikolenko L.A. Acquired mechanical hemolytic anemia, caused by dysfunction of implanted heart valves (with a description of clinical cases) // RMJ. 2018. № 1(II). P. 126–128.