Spinal cord protection with selective spinal perfusion during descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic surgery.
Open repair of aortic aneurysm causes spinal cord perfusion pressure to decrease due to the steal phenomenon from the bleeding of intercostal arteries and cross-clamping of the aorta. We attempted to perfuse the intercostal arteries for preoperative detection of the artery of Adamkiewicz using newly developed catheters. Fifteen patients underwent selective spinal perfusion with our original catheter as spinal protection during the procedure of distal descending thoracic aneurysm (DTA) or thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair. Seven patients had distal DTA and eight had TAAA. Monitoring of motor evoked potential (MEP) was performed in all patients throughout the operation. The perfusion flow was 30-40 ml/min for each intercostal artery and was adjusted to keep the proximal circuit pressure at 150-200 mmHg. The average number of perfused intercostal arteries was 2.3 per patient and the number of intercostal arteries reimplanted per patient was 2.5. Intercostal arteries were reimplanted using an interpositional graft. MEPs were still observable after graft replacement in all patients and there were no cases of paraparesis/paraplegia. All patients were discharged ambulatory. Selective spinal perfusion maintains the quantity of total blood flow in the spinal cord and is very useful for reducing the incidence of ischemic injury of the spinal cord during operation.
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South 1 West 16, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8543, Japan. nobuyosh@sapmed.ac.jp
Nobuyoshi
N
Kawaharada
Toshiro
T
Ito
Tetsuya
T
Koyanagi
Ryo
R
Harada
Hideki
H
Hyodoh
Yoshihiko
Y
Kurimoto
Atsushi
A
Watanabe
Tetsuya
T
Higami
D000368:Aged; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002404:Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010477:Perfusion / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012042:Registries; D012092:Replantation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000098:blood supply*; D020760:Spinal Cord Ischemia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome