Acute acquired immune thrombocytopenia after cardiac surgery: A challenging case

Abstract

Thrombocytopenia is a common condition that recognizes an infinite number of possible causes, especially in specific settings like the one covered in this case report: the postoperative period of cardiac surgery. We report a case of an old male with multiple comorbidities who underwent a coronary angioplasty procedure and aortic valve replacement. He showed severe thrombocytopenia in the postoperative days. Differential diagnosis required a big effort, also for the experts in the field. Our goal was to aggressively treat the patient with prednisolone, platelets, and intravenous immunoglobulins to maximize the prognosis. Our patient developed no complications and was discharged successfully.

Keywords

• acute acquired immune thrombocytopenia
• aggregometry
• aortic valve replacement (avr)
• cardiac surgery
• intravenous immunoglobulins (ivig)
• transcatheter aortic valve implantation (tavi)