Decreased cerebral emboli during distal aortic arch cannulation: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral emboli occur during cardiopulmonary bypass and are a principal cause of postoperative neurologic dysfunction. We hypothesized that arterial cannulation of the distal aortic arch, with placement of the cannula tip beyond the left subclavian artery, will result in fewer cerebral microemboli than conventional cannulation of the ascending aorta. METHODS: Patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery with a single crossclamp technique were randomized to receive cannulation of the distal aortic arch (n = 17) or standard cannulation of the ascending aorta (control group, n = 17). Trendelenburg positioning was used whenever possible. Cerebral emboli were quantified by continuous transcranial Doppler monitoring of the middle cerebral artery. RESULTS: Baseline demographics were similar for the 2 groups of patients, including cardiopulmonary bypass and crossclamp times. Cerebral microemboli were detected during cardiopulmonary bypass in all patients, with a range of 17 to 627 emboli. The total number of detected emboli was lower in the arch cannulation group (152 +/- 33, mean +/- standard error of the mean) than in the conventional cannulation group (249 +/- 35, P =.04). Embolization rates were lower in distal arch patients than in control patients during cardiopulmonary bypass (2.0 +/- 0.3 vs 4.2 +/- 0.9 per minute, respectively, P =.03). Reduction in cerebral emboli by distal arch cannulation was most pronounced during perfusionist interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Cannulation of the distal aortic arch results in less cerebral microembolism than conventional cannulation of the ascending aorta. Provided it is performed safely, distal arch cannulation may be an important surgical option for patients with severe atherosclerosis of the ascending aorta.

Effect of aortic cannula characteristics and blood velocity on transcranial doppler-detected microemboli during cardiopulmonary bypass.

OBJECTIVES: Cerebral microemboli are responsible to a large extent for the neuropsychiatric deficits after cardiac surgery. Differences in cannula size during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) will result in different velocities of blood exiting the aortic cannula. This study determined whether the number of transcranial Doppler (TCD)-detected emboli in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) during CPB correlated with blood speed or the direction of flow as determined by the shape of the aortic cannula. DESIGN: Patients were studied prospectively for evidence of TCD-detected emboli. If patients met the inclusion criteria, the choice of cannula was determined by surgical preference. SETTING: All studies were conducted at a single tertiary care academic cardiac surgery hospital by a single observer. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two patients undergoing first-time elective aortocoronary bypass surgery who were free of neurologic dysfunction or peripheral vascular disease and weighed 60 to 85 kg were studied. Patients who had other concurrent cardiac operations or who were in cardiogenic shock were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: Three aortic cannula types for elective aortocoronary bypass surgery were used: 24F curved (n = 19), 24F straight (n = 6), and 22F straight (n = 7), with internal diameters (IDs) of 7.2, 6.6, and 5.9 mm, respectively. TCD-detected emboli were identified in the MCA. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The rate of TCD-detected emboli (0.02 to 11.4 emboli per minute) was not related to the velocity of blood (46 to 77 cm/s) and was not affected by the choice of either a straight or curved aortic cannula. CONCLUSIONS: The choice of a straight or curved aortic cannula or of a 24F versus 22F cannula may not be important with respect to the number of cerebral microemboli.

Cerebral microemboli during coronary artery bypass using different cardioplegia techniques.

Larger numbers of microemboli detected by transcranial Doppler echocardiography have been linked to adverse neuropsychological outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting. Differences in neurologic outcome have been attributed to different cardioplegia techniques. Transcranial Doppler-detected microembolic events were recorded during coronary artery bypass grafting using different cardioplegia techniques. Patients received cold antegrade (n = 20), warm antegrade (n = 17), or warm retrograde (n = 20) cardioplegia. Continuous monitoring was divided into stages: aortic cannulation, initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass, aortic cross-clamping, aortic declamping and decannulation until chest closure. Rate of embolic events and number of total and immediate embolic events were tabulated. Total embolic events ranged from 22 to 2,072 per patient and were similar among groups. The rate and total at each stage were similar. Total embolic events were highest during aortic clamping; the rate was highest at initiation of bypass. The immediate embolic events were higher in the warm retrograde group than both antegrade groups at aortic declamping. In summary, a high total and rate of embolic events were detected and differences between cardioplegia techniques were detected.