Optimizing Venous Drainage for Minimal Access Right Atrial Procedures

Publication date: Available online 8 June 2019Source: The Annals of Thoracic SurgeryAuthor(s): Shengjun Wu, Liang Ma, Chengcheng Li, Yiming NiAbstractWe have created a shaped tube that connects the superior and inferior vena caval orifices to drain the blood from superior vena cava to the inferior vena cava and eventually to the extracorporeal circulation through the femoral vein. We specifically use it in cardiac surgeries in the case of right atriotomy operations requiring femoral vein cannulation, such as tricuspid valvuloplasty or replacement, atrioventricular septal defect repairing and so on. This method would improve the exposure and drainage, simplify operation steps and shorten the operation time.Both femoral artery and vein cannulation are generally used for right chest minimally invasive cardiac surgery to establish extracorporeal circulation, and a small incision will be made on the right chest wall, which can be supplemented by thoracoscopy. The same technique can also be used in some redo operations. During such operations, before the right atriotomy, the superior vena cava(SVC) and inferior vena cava(IVC) should be routinely snared and an extra superior vena cava cannula is needed. This has higher requirements for the operation skill and the snares are prone to damage tissue and cause bleeding. In order to simplify the procedure and improve efficiency, we invented a simple SVC and IVC shunt using the general vena cava drainage cannula for clinical verification.
Source: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery - Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Source Type: research