Extracorporal circulation is commonly used in cardiosurgery. One of its possible complications is disturbed haemostasis leading to excessive blood loss in perioperative period. The aim of the study was to estimate blood platelet function before and after extracorporal circulation. We examined 15 subjects, mean age 47.6 ±2.31. All the subjects underwent cardiosurgical intervention with extracorporal circulation. Blood platelet function was estimated before and after the intervention when ACT was back to the normal range. We analysed the blood platelet aggregation parameters, platelet numbers and circulating aggregates. A significant decrease in the platelet number during cafdiosurgical intervention with extracorporal circulation was observed but the platelet funcion parameters, measured when ACT values were in the normal range, did not decrease significaltly as compared to the basal value. It suggests that platelet function disturbances observed during extracorporal circulation tend to normalise in the porioperative period.

Keywords: cardiac surgery, extracorporal circulation, platelet function