Purpose: We evaluated the correlation of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and cardiac surgery in a group of patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia operated on with or without extracorporeal cardiopulmonary circulation.
Materials and methods: A total of 30 men 54 to 72 years old (mean age 62 years) undergoing cardiac surgery had PSA measured preoperatively and postoperatively. To provide the baseline PSA value a first serum sample was obtained before surgery, and PSA measurements were repeated 12 hours and 7 days postoperatively. Cardiac surgery was performed with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary circulation in 20 cases and without cardiopulmonary bypass in 10, constituted the control group. An 18F Foley catheter was left indwelling for the first 24 hours in both groups.
Results: In the study group there was a significant increase in PSA postoperatively (p = 0.01). However, in the control group the PSA was not statistically different before or after surgery (p = 0.16). These results indicate that there was a physiological relationship between the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary circulation and PSA.
Conclusions: Although the etiology of this elevation is unknown, based on our data we conclude that extracorporeal cardiopulmonary circulation can cause an alteration in serum PSA unrelated to cardiac operation without extracorporeal bypass.