Pre-bypass ultrafiltration reduces cytokine burden of blood prime in pediatric cardiac surgery.

Allogeneic red blood cells (RBCs) are commonly used for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit priming in congenital heart surgery. While convection-based pre-bypass ultrafiltration (PBUF) corrects acid-base, electrolyte, and metabolite imbalances, its efficacy in removing RBC cytokines/chemokines remains unclear. In a prospective observational study, 22 children (median age: 4.