Percutaneous left-heart decompression during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: an alternative to surgical and transeptal venting in adult patients.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is often applied for acute cardiorespiratory failure. Left ventricular distension can compromise recovery of the failing heart. To overcome this complication, we describe a new technique to decompress the left heart through the insertion of a venting cannula in the pulmonary artery. A 43-year-old woman was connected to ECMO for refractory cardiogenic shock after left pneumonia and severe sepsis. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) revealed a large intraventricular clot. A 15F venous cannula was placed percutaneously in the pulmonary artery and connected to the venous limb of the ECMO circuit to decompress the left heart, and to prevent left ventricular ejection and potential embolization. After myocardial recovery, when the thrombus was judged as stable, the patient was weaned, and ECMO was removed on day 16. The patient was discharged from the cardiac surgery intensive care unit on day 30 and subsequently had an uneventful recovery. This new percutaneous approach represent a feasible and effective method to vent the left heart during ECMO, when it becomes necessary to reduce wall tension or to prevent ejection.

Cardiac, neuroadrenergic, and portal hemodynamic effects of prolonged aldosterone blockade in postviral child A cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVES: The present study was designed to determine the effects of long-term antialdosterone treatment on cardiac structural and functional alterations, portal and systemic hemodynamic as well as adrenergic dysfunction characterizing Child A cirrhotic patients with F1 esophageal varices. METHODS: Twenty-two Child A postviral preascitic cirrhotic patients were randomly allocated to 200 mg/day K-Canrenoate (13 patients, age 59.6 +/- 2.2 yr, mean + SEM) or no-drug treatment (9 patients, age 61.8 +/- 2.3) for a 6-month-period. Measurements, which included hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), left ventricular wall thickness, left ventricular end-diastolic volume and diastolic function (LVWT, LVEDV, and E/A ratio, echocardiography), and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA, microneurography, peroneal nerve), were obtained at baseline and following 6 months of drug or no-drug treatment. Ten healthy age-matched subjects served as controls. RESULTS: Cirrhotic patients were characterized by increased HVPG, LVWT, and MSNA values and by a depressed E/A ratio. K-Canrenoate treatment significantly reduced HVPG (from 15.3 +/- 1.0 to 13.8 +/- 0.8 mmHg, p < 0.05), LVWT (from 21.8 +/- 0.5 to 20.7 +/- 0.6 mm, p < 0.02), and LVEDV (from 99.2 +/- 7 to 86.4 +/- 6 ml, p < 0.01), leaving E/A ratio and MSNA almost unaltered. No significant change was observed in the untreated group of cirrhotic patients followed for 6 months without intervention. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide evidence that aldosterone blockade by long-term K-Canrenoate administration improves hepatic hemodynamics by lowering HVPG and ameliorates cardiac structure and function by favoring a reduction in LVWT and LVEDV as well. They also show, however, that this therapeutic intervention neither improves left ventricular diastolic dysfunction nor exerts sympathoinhibitory effects.