title: Carotid artery cannulation in aortic surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Carotid artery cannulation was initially established at our clinic for surgery of acute aortic dissection, and it became the standard approach for procedures in which circulatory arrest is necessary. The aim of the study was to evaluate this method's efficiency regarding postoperative outcomes after the first 100 procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between July 2002 and October 2005, 100 patients underwent aortic surgery using carotid artery cannulation by a side graft for arterial return with a mean flow rate of 4.6 +/- 0.5 L/min. There were 27 patients with acute and 2 with chronic type A aortic dissection. Sixteen patients had had prior cardiac surgery. During circulatory arrest, the arterial line was used for unilateral cerebral perfusion in moderate hypothermia (mean rectal temperature 28 degrees C +/- 1.6 degrees C) with a mean flow rate of 0.85 +/- 0.2 L/min.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Carotid artery cannulation offered adequate arterial return in all patients. In no case was a switch to another cannulation site necessary for arterial return. Furthermore, no complications related to the cannulation site were observed. One patient with acute dissection and 1 with chronic aneurysm died during the early postoperative course. Thus, 30-day mortality was 2.0% for the whole group and 3.7% for the dissection group. Two patients with severe calcification of the aortic valve had strokes. There were no strokes in the dissection group, although there were preoperative signs of cerebral malperfusion in 4 patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Carotid artery cannulation is a fast, safe, and efficient method of arterial cannulation even in very obese patients. In addition, it simplifies the procedure of unilateral cerebral perfusion through the arterial line during circulatory arrest, making it completely unnecessary to interrupt cerebral perfusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Clinic Bad Neustadt, Bad Neustadt, Germany. p.urbanski@kardiochirurg.de
authors.forename: Paul P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Urbanski
authors.forename: Aristidis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lenos
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lindemann
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weigang
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zacher
authors.forename: Anno
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diegeler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000601:surgery*; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000601:surgery*; D002339:Carotid Arteries; D002404:Catheterization; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods