Resection of Descending Thoracic Aorta Using Peripheral Cardiopulmonary Bypass

¹ Cardiopulmonary Surgical Section, Veterans Administration Hospital, Hines, Illinois, and Department of Surgery, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Twenty-three patients have had resection and graft replacement of the descending thoracic aorta utilizing peripheral cardiopulmonary bypass. Three patients died in the immediate postoperative period; one from a myocardial infarction and two from a cardiac arrest during closure of the chest, giving an operative mortality of 13.6 per cent. Another individual died eight weeks after surgery from pneumonia.

The technique would appear to be more efficacious than the previously described methods in that it assures: 1) a constant rate of infusion independent of cardiac output, 2) improved surgical exposure by removal of the perfusion tubing from the chest, 3) assurance of adequate blood flow to the infradiaphragmatic organs.