title: Transcranial Doppler-guided deairing of a pediatric ventricular assist device: experience with twins.
abstract: We report the intraoperative courses of 2 consecutive Berlin Heart Excor® Pediatric Ventricular Assist Device implantations, in which transcranial Doppler ultrasonography helped to detect macroscopically undetected residual air bubbles captured in the pump after air removal had been correctly performed according to manufacturer's specifications. Our experience with these cases suggests that a beat-to beat deairing maneuver guided by transcranial Doppler is a useful strategy for reducing cerebral exposure to perioperative gaseous microembolism.
authors.affiliation: From the *Departments of Anesthesiology and Pain Therapy, †Cardiovascular Surgery, and ‡Cardiology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Erdoes
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kadner
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hutter
authors.forename: Balthasar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eberle
mesh_terms: D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass / Q000379:methods; D004618:Embolism, Air / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008297:Male; D014427:Twins; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial / Q000379:methods*