Extracorporeal circulation

Drowning remains a significant global health concern, claiming over 300,000 lives annually, with a disproportionate impact on young individuals in low-and middle-income countries. Conventional mechanical ventilation, while common, falls short in addressing the hypoxemia and hypercapnia often observed in severe near-drowning cases. Veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vvECMO) emerges as a critical intervention for cardiopulmonary failure post-drowning. This case report delves into the pivotal role of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in a near-drowning-related pathology...

Anomalous aortic origin of the left coronary artery (AAOLCA) confers high risk for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). This series aims to describe consecutive admissions with interarterial AAOLCA presenting with SCA and distinct clinical trajectories. An eight-year-old boy collapsed at school and received 10-min of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation prior to return of spontaneous circulation. He had no end-organ dysfunction and underwent uneventful coronary unroofing. In contrast, a 14-year-old boy presented with collapse while jogging...

BACKGROUND: The likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation with conventional advanced life support is known to have an exponential decline and therefore neurological outcome after 20 min in patients with a cardiac arrest is poor. Initiation of venoarterial ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) during resuscitation might improve outcomes if used in time and in a selected patient category. However, previous studies have failed to significantly reduce the time from cardiac arrest to ECMO flow to less than 60 min...

BACKGROUND: Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) for acute iliofemoral deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is an endovenous interventional therapy that can quickly remove the acute thrombus, thereby improving the clinical outcomes of proximal DVT. However, instrumentation of extensive fresh thrombus may be associated with iatrogenic pulmonary embolism (PE). Therefore, we aimed to compare CDT's safety, complications, and perioperative embolic (PE) insults for acute iliofemoral DVT, with and without an IVC filter...

BACKGROUND: Randomized data evaluating the impact of the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) approach on long-term clinical outcomes in patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are lacking. The objective of this follow-up study was to assess the long-term clinical outcomes of the ECPR-based versus CCPR approach. METHODS: The Prague OHCA trial was a single-center, randomized, open-label trial. Patients with witnessed refractory OHCA of presumed cardiac origin, without return of spontaneous circulation, were randomized during ongoing resuscitation on scene to conventional CPR (CCPR) or an ECPR-based approach (intra-arrest transport, ECPR if ROSC is not achieved prehospital and immediate invasive assessment)...

INTRODUCTION: As international guidelines suggest keeping the platelet count between 50 and 100 × 109 cells/L in children on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), platelet transfusions are administered to two-thirds of ECMO days, and up to 70% of these patients still bleed. We aim to describe outcomes in critically ill children who develop severe thrombocytopenia on ECMO. METHODS: Single-center retrospective study, enrolling critically ill children on ECMO admitted at Children's Memorial Hermann, TX, between 1/2018 and 12/2022, with at least one platelet count below 50 × 109 cells/L (severe thrombocytopenia)...

INTRODUCTION: Carcinoid tumors are rare neuroendocrine tumors; about 5% of patients develop the carcinoid syndrome. We present the case of a patient with carcinoid syndrome undergoing cardiac surgery. CASE REPORT: A 74-year-old patient with carcinoid heart disease and hepatic metastases underwent double valve replacement and CABG. The patient was on octreotide therapy and antihypertensive medication. An octreotide infusion was commenced perioperatively. Pharmaceutical agents that could potentially precipitate histamine release or exacerbate catecholamine secretion and carcinoid crises were avoided...

BACKGROUND: Clinical assessment and laboratory markers provide valuable information on tissue perfusion and enhance the optimalisation of management in the treatment of patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The PCO2 gap is a reliable marker of cardiac output (CO) and perfusion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the PCO2 gap as a marker of tissue hypoperfusion and to compare it to lactate and SvO2. METHODS: A single-center retrospective study on 131 adult cardiac patients who underwent ECMO implantation in the period between 2010 and 2021...

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BACKGROUND: Open arch surgery is technically demanding for the surgeon and surgically and biologically invasive for the patient, requiring a variably long period of hypothermic circulatory arrest. CASE PRESENTATION: Here we present a case of an elderly patient with chronic renal failure and multiple splanchnic artery disease successfully treated for a rupturing pseudoaneurysm of the aortic arch with a technique that we developed for particularly frail patients. The procedure includes: triple supra-aortic vessel perfusion; distal thoracic aorta antegrade perfusion; balloon endo-clamping of the descending aorta; and anastomosis of an off-the-shelf hybrid arch prosthesis in Ishimaru zone 0...

Centrifugal blood pumps drive blood flow by regulating blood flow rate, and have been widely used in clinical applications, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and extracorporeal circulation carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2 R). However, because different structures and different forms of centrifugal pumps have different requirements for blood extracorporeal circulation in clinical application scenarios, blood pumps face different application conditions in clinical use...

INTRODUCTION: Intraoperative ultrafiltration (UF) is a procedure used during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) to reduce haemodilution and prevent excessive blood transfusion. However, the effect of UF volume on acute kidney injury (AKI) is not well established, and the results are conflicting. Additionally, there are no set indications for applying UF during CPB. METHODS: This retrospective study analysed 641 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery with CPB...

Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) shunts venous blood to the systemic arterial circulation to provide end-organ perfusion while increasing afterload that may impede left ventricle (LV) ejection and impair cardiac recovery. To maintain flow across the aortic valve and reduce risk of lethal clot formation, secondary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices are increasingly used despite limited understanding of their effects on cardiac function. This study sought to quantify the effects of VA-ECMO and combined with either intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) or percutaneous ventricular assist device (pVAD) on LV physiologic state and perfusion metrics in a porcine model of acute cardiogenic shock...

PURPOSE: Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (EBCR) improves functional capacity in heart failure (HF). However, data on the effect of EBCR in patients with advanced HF and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are limited. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the impact of EBCR on the functional ability of LVAD patients by comparing the corresponding outcome indicators between the EBCR and ST groups. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Clinical Trials, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies assessing and comparing the effects of EBCR and standard therapy (ST) in patients following LVAD implantation...

BACKGROUND: Oxygenators, as used in cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuits, are components with good air removal properties. However, under some conditions the semipermeable characteristics of hollow fibers allow air to accidentally enter the blood side of the CPB circuit. This may occur when a fluid in motion is stopped suddenly by which the rapid change in momentum may cause a relative negative pressure drop, the so-called hammer effect. The hammer effect is not yet described in literature related to CPB...

Background: Nitric Oxide (NO) is a naturally occurring modulator of inflammation found in the human body. Several studies in the pediatric cardiothoracic surgery literature have demonstrated some beneficial clinical effects when NO is added to the sweep gas of the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit. Purpose: Our primary aim was to determine the safety of incorporating nitric oxide into the oxygenator sweep gas of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuit. Secondarily, we looked at important clinical outcomes, such as survival, blood product utilization, and common complications related to ECMO...

The use of extracorporeal circulatory support, both for cardiogenic shock and during resuscitation, still presents many unanswered questions. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for such a resource-intensive treatment must be clearly defined, considering that these criteria are directly associated with the type and location of treatment. For example, it is worth questioning the viability of an extracorporeal resuscitation program in areas where it is impossible to achieve low-flow times under 60 min due to local limitations...

BACKGROUND: Anticoagulation is essential for the treatment and prevention of thromboembolic events. Current guidelines recommend direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) over vitamin K antagonists in DOAC-eligible patients. The major complication of anticoagulation is serious or life-threatening haemorrhage, which may necessitate prompt haemostatic intervention. Reversal of DOACs may also be required for patients in need of urgent invasive procedures. This guideline from the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) aims to provide evidence-based recommendations and suggestions on how to manage patients on DOACs undergoing urgent or emergency procedures including the treatment of DOAC-induced bleeding...

INTRODUCTION: We set out to investigate whether the use of Histidine-Tryptophan-Ketoglutarate (HTK) solution or del Nido cardioplegia is linked to an increased incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out at our center, with a total of 478 patients included in the analysis. Among them, 268 patients were administered the del Nido solution (DN) while 210 patients received the HTK solution...

Anesthetic management of patients with renal cell carcinoma with tumor thrombus in the inferior vena cava (IVC) is challenging. This paper reports the experience of anesthesia management in a patient with advanced renal cell carcinoma with thrombus accumulation in the IVC, right atrium, and pulmonary artery who underwent radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombus removal assisted by cardiopulmonary bypass. The emboli, measuring approximately 3 × 6 cm in the left inferior pulmonary artery and 4 × 13 cm in the right main pulmonary artery, were removed completely...