Conditions: Cardiac Surgery-CABG Cardiac Valve Replacement
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 4
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
EPOgen and Restrictive Transfusions in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery (EPORT)

Detailed description:
The investigator proposes a study investigating the use of restrictive transfusion triggers and administration of single preoperative high dose shot of epoetin alfa (rhEPO) in a young (age \< 65 years of age) population undergoing cardiac surgery. The investigator believes that participants can tolerate a lower Hemoglobin (Hgb). Therefore, the control group will benefit from a restrictive transfusion trigger and experimental group will benefit from EPO providing a synergistic stimulus for erythropoiesis. This proposed study has potential to reduce overall transfusion utilization in cardiac surgery and improve standard of care.

Arms:
arm 1: 1000 IU/kg Epogen in 250 ml of normal saline infused over 1 hr arm 2: 250 ml normal saline infused over 1 hr

Interventions: intervention 1: Epogen intervention 2: Normal Saline
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 1:1 randomization to either the Epogen arm or Placebo(Normal Saline) arm intervention 2: 1:1 randomization to either the Epogen arm or Placebo(Normal Saline) arm

Protocol document: