Effects of retrograde autologous priming in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Background Adult cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation (ECC) is known to be associated with increased risk of blood transfusion and systemic inflammatory response leading to adverse outcomes. Modern procedures like retrograde autologous priming (RAP) may reduce these negative side effects of ECC. This randomized prospective study was initiated to assess whether RAP using specifically designed RAP bag (Terumo) has immediate effects on patient outcome.