Evaluation of the Effects of a Single Bolus of
Erythropoietin on Reducing the Incidence of
Atrial Fibrillation after Coronary Artery Bypass
Graft Surgery; A Randomized, Double-Blind,
Placebo-Control Study

Shervin Ziabakhsh Tabary*, MD, FCTS

Introduction: Atrial Fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia

developing after coronary artery bypass surgery. Many studies have been

done to reduce the incidence of post CABG AF. In our recent study we

used Indocid and showed that it can reduce the incidence of AF by

reducing the inflammatory reactions. In this study we want to understand

if we can reduce the incidence of post CABG AF with reducing the

ischemia during the cross-clamp time in CABG by a single bolus of

Erythropoietin.

Material and methods: 43 patients that were referred to Mazandaran

Heart Center (Sari, Iran) for elective CABG between September 2010 and

October 2011 were included in this study and randomly divided into two

groups :Erythropoietin group and control group. Patients in

Erythropoietin group were treated by common medical therapies and

CABG plus 700 IU/kg Erythropoietin (PD Poietin, puyeshdaroo, Iran),

intravenously infusion, exactly 5 min after termination of cross clamp: at

the start of reperfusion and patients in control group were treated by

common medical therapies and CABG surgery plus 10cc normal saline as

placebo.

Results: There was no significant differences between two control and

EPO group according to their age, sex ,involved vessels ,number of grafts,

cross-clamp and pump time. There was statistically lower incidence of

post CABG AF in EPO group.

Discussion: Showing that the incidence of post CABG AF has been

reduced by decreasing the cross-clamp time and therefore the ischemia

during surgery in our previous study, we planned this study to find that a

single bolus of Erythropoietin used in CABG can reduce the incidence of

post CABG AF by reducing the ischemia occurred by post perfusion injury.

Share this article