Myocardial protection during aortic valve replacement. Physiological and metabolic effects of selective coronary perfusion on the fibrillating heart

Abstract

The physiological effects and certain aspects of cardiac metabolism were studied in 14 patients undergoing primary aortic valve replacement. The operations were performed under moderate hypothermia (30 degrees +/- 2 degrees C) and blood for coronary perfusion was taken from a sidebranch of the arterial line. The majority of the hearts went spontaneously into ventricular fibrillation at some stage of the operation. In spite of the high resistance measured in the coronary perfusion cannulae, an intraluminar coronary blood flow of 380 ml/min was recorded. The myocardial oxygen uptake decreased to 6.0 ml/min at 29 degrees C compared with 20.0 ml/min at 36 degrees C. The elevated coronary sinus lactate throughout the period of coronary perfusion and the increasing level of ASAT-enzyme indicated that this technique could not fully protect the myocardium from ischaemic changes. One patient died of myocardial infarction and two others needed vasopressor support postoperatively, in spite of documented effective coronary perfusion throughout the procedure. Cannulation of the coronary sinus is a valuable adjunct for the study of cardiac metabolism during ECC and it was accomplished without complications.