Long-term closed chest partial and total cardiopulmonary bypass by peripheral cannulation for severe right and/or left ventricular failure, including ventricular fibrillation. The use of a percutaneous spring in the pulmonary artery position to decompress the left heart.

The authors report that total cardiopulmonary bypass (CPBP) for severe heart failure can be safely maintained for several days through peripheral cannulation alone. In two healthy sheep under general anesthesia, the authors cannulated the right external jugular vein and the right subclavian artery. A special spring was attached to a 7F Swan-Ganz catheter and positioned at the level of the pulmonary artery (PA) valve, rendering it partially incompetent. The extracorporeal circuit included a venous reservoir, a roller pump, a membrane lung, and a blood pulsator set at 25 beats/min. Ventricular fibrillation was induced with 110 VAC. Extracorporeal blood flow was raised to 100-120 ml/kg min. Mechanical pulmonary ventilation was changed to 5% CO2 in room air. During bypass, the wedge pressure (WP) averaged 9-13 mmHg, PA pressure 7-13 mmHg, and central venous pressure 1-9 mmHg. After 38 and 48 hr respectively the hearts were defibrillated with DC shock. There was total heart failure with no ejection from right or left. We continued with TCPBP. The right heart recovered after 1 and 3 hr respectively. After 7 and 5 hr, respectively, there was some aortic ejection. By 11 and 4 hr, respectively, the sheep were off bypass and on room air, with return to baseline cardiac function. Throughout the recovery the WP averaged 4-8 mmHg. At autopsy, all hearts were soft and normal in appearance. Histologic examination of the lungs and the heart was unremarkable. The authors conclude that the PA spring readily decompressed the LV. Ventilating lungs with 5% CO2 in air during CPBP sustained excellent lung function.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)