Baribeau Y, et al. - Given that evacuation of shed mediastinal blood in the critical care setting in the early hours following heart surgery is accomplished by routine use of chest tubes, researchers compared whether a decreased incidence of retained blood complications and related hospital resource utilization following cardiac surgery could be achieved via active chest tube clearance. Including 697 consecutive patients who had cardiac surgery at a single center, they performed propensity matched analysis. Findings offered evidence that was supportive of the usefulness of attempts to actively maintain chest tube patency in early recovery in order to obtain improved outcomes as well as to decrease resource utilization and costs following cardiac surgery.