ACP Illinois 2026 Second Place: Heparin Resistance in Cardiac Surgery

This poster pools 41 studies covering 22,403 adult cardiopulmonary bypass patients to estimate how often heparin resistance actually occurs, and shows that the headline rate depends almost entirely on which definition a centre uses.

• Poster: Prevalence of Heparin Resistance in Adult Cardiac Surgery with Cardiopulmonary Bypass: A Systematic Review and Proportion Meta-Analysis
• Presenter: Meghana Reddy, first author
• Award: Second Place, Poster Presentation Category
• Session: ACP Illinois Chapter 2026 Internal Medicine Meeting, October 2, 2026, Peoria, IL
• Findings: Pooled prevalence of heparin resistance was 18.9% (95% CI 14.0–25.0) with extreme heterogeneity (I² = 96.9%). Estimates ran from 39.7% under heparin sensitivity and dose-response definitions to 16.1% for ACT thresholds and 5.6% for pragmatic definitions (p < 0.0001), so roughly 1 in 5 patients meets some definition of heparin resistance.