CORONARY-ARTERY OPERATION SUPPORTED BY THE HEMOPUMP - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY ON PIG

Twelve pigs undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting had the Hemopum p to decompress the heart and as circulatory support. The pigs also we re given a short-acting beta-blocker, esmolol, to make the heart flacc id. Extracorporeal circulation was not used. During Hemopump support, a bolus dose of 0.5 to 5 mg/kg of esmolol was given before incremental titration steps from 100 to 600 mu g.kg(-1).min(-1) over 15 to 20 min utes. The internal thoracic artery was sutured to the distal part of t he left anterior descending artery. The Hemopump was withdrawn to the aorta after a weaning period of 20 to 30 minutes. Seven of 12 pigs wen t through the whole procedure and the Hemopump was weaned off without complications. Five animals died due to right ventricular failure in a ssociation with esmolol administration. There was a big interindividua l difference in esmolol dose-response curves in the surviving animals. No significant differences in the hemodynamic variables were observed during the experiment. The Hemopump in combination with a short-actin g beta-blocker could be an alternate way of performing coronary artery bypass grafting in selected patients.