Open Access Case study

Surgical strategy to prevent cardiac injury during reoperation in infants

Christopher J Knott-Craig*, Steven P Goldberg and James K Kirklin

  • * Corresponding author: Christopher J Knott-Craig ckc@uab.edu

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2008, 3:10 doi:10.1186/1749-8090-3-10

Reservations on SAC

A Protopapas   (2008-08-29 05:59)  Great Ormond Street Hospital email

Just a quick comment: cannulating the innominate artery does nothing to prevent cardiac injury upon re-entry, it just offers an option for the aortic pipe IN CASE OF CARDIAC INJURY-we still have to divide the sternum and mostly introduce bicaval cannulae.

I do not see how access for cannulation via the suprasternal notch is safer than redo sternotomy-the tissues are already adhered given the previous sternotomy, particularly where thymectomy and innominate cannulation have taken place in the first operation.The same applies to cavoatrial cannulation without sternotomy-a video showing the technique would be illuminating!

Kindest Regards

Aristotle D Protopapas MSc. FRCS

Competing interests

none

top

Post a comment