title: Edwards EndoVent as a pacing catheter for minimally invasive aortic valve surgery: a novel approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The placement of epicardial pacing wires before weaning from bypass during port-access heart surgery can be difficult or impossible. Sometimes, it is necessary to pacing the patient to wean from bypass, and it is problematic to exchange the Edwards pulmonary vent (EndoVent) for a pace catheter under the drapes. Our objective was to devise an effective means of pacing the patient using the pulmonary vent catheter.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients having aortic valve minimally invasive port-access surgery have a pacing wire deployed through the Edwards EndoVent catheter. We did a retrospective chart analysis of these cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After reviewing the anesthesia records, we determined that we were able to reliably convert the pulmonary vent catheter, which is beneficial for the surgery, into a pacing catheter before weaning from bypass 100% of the time. The mean pacing threshold current was 1.60 mA with the wire in the right ventricular apex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that in all 25 patients we were able to rapidly convert the vent catheter into a reliable pacing catheter without any complications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, UMDNJ-RWJ Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. hofficer@erols.com
authors.forename: Jonathan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kraidin
authors.forename: Enrique J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Pantin
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Bo-Lu
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Alann R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Solina