title: Emergency reinforcement of cracked paracorporeal blood pumps.
abstract: In a patient with biventricular paracorporeal cardiac support, severe cracks in the outer pump housing occurred for unknown reasons (possibly because of the application of solvent). Pump replacement was considered but estimated to be a very high risk for this particular patient. Therefore, it was decided to glue the ventricles. Gluing was done after pilot tests in a two stage procedure: first, with a special glue that hardens under exposure to ultraviolet light and then with a two component low exothermic epoxy resin. The procedure resulted in very satisfying stability for the remainder of the bridging period, and the patient could be transplanted successfully 59 days after the event. It is concluded that a carefully selected gluing procedure (caveats: with previously tested glue, a validated procedure, and as a last resort only) may bring less risk in such rare cases of pump cracks than a pump exchange.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schima
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reindl
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoiber
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Röthy
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wieselthaler
mesh_terms: D000269:Adhesives / Q000494:pharmacology; D000328:Adult; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D004853:Epoxy Resins / Q000494:pharmacology; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000269:Adhesives; D004853:Epoxy Resins