Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass for the treatment of hypothermic circulatory collapse.

Environmentally induced hypothermia has a very high mortality. Cardiopulmonary bypass affords the best chance of survival from hypothermia but can be time-consuming to institute. We have utilized percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass with recently developed bypass catheters to resuscitate a patient with profound hypothermia complicated by circulatory collapse. Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass appears to be the treatment of choice for profound hypothermia.