Pre-operative reference ranges for ROTEM® sigma in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a secondary analysis of two prospective trial cohorts

Abstract

Rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM^®) is used widely in cardiac surgery. Reference ranges are derived from healthy volunteers but may not be interchangeable with those from patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Furthermore, sex and age seem to influence rotational thromboelastometry profiles. We performed a secondary analysis of two prospective observational study cohorts from a single centre in the Netherlands, which establishes pre-operative ROTEM^® sigma reference ranges for adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery and examines sex- and age-specific variations.