Clinical experience with the mini-extracorporeal circulation system: an evolution or a revolution?
OBJECTIVE
We studied a cohort of 150 patients operated on with a new cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) system. This is the mini-extracorporeal circulation (MECC) system.


METHODS
The MECC is a fully heparin coated closed-loop CPB system that includes a centrifugal pump and has a priming volume of 450 mL. Between March 2001 and September 2002, 150 consecutive patients were operated on using the mini-CPB (MECC) method. This includes 105 coronary artery bypass graft and 45 aortic valve replacement patients. The median age was 66.7 +/- 10.7 years with a gender ratio of 3.27 males to 1 female.


RESULTS
The 30-day operative mortality was 1.3%. The hemoglobin concentration was stable and perioperative transfusion was needed in only 6% of all patients. The renal and neuropsychiatric complications were less than 1%.


CONCLUSIONS
In our experience, the MECC system is a reliable new concept for CPB with good clinical results.
Remadi
Jean-Paul
JP
Cardiovascular Surgery Unit, Amiens, France. jpremadi@aol.com
Marticho
Paul
P
Butoi
Irina
I
Rakotoarivelo
Zava
Z
Trojette
Faouzi
F
Benamar
Amar
A
Beloucif
Sadek
S
Foure
Dominique
D
Poulain
Henri J
HJ
D000368:Aged; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D004867:Equipment Design; D005112:Extracorporeal Circulation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008904:Miniaturization; D011183:Postoperative Complications
D006454:Hemoglobins