[HSF] On pump beating heart

Wed Feb 21 17:01:29 EST 2007

When my group does OPCAB, they don't prime the pump, either.  However, they do have a perfusionist and a pump in the room ready to go if the need arises.  One hundred per cent OPCAB?  You apparently don't offer surgery to patients in cardiogenic shock and froth coming out the ET tube.  I have and do.  However, no way would I consider doing that type of patient off pump.  

Hal

-----Original Message-----
From: drdharris at yahoo.co.uk
To: OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
Sent: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: [HSF] On pump beating heart

I agree fully with Tea: there is no need to have the
pump primed for an OPCAB, unless it is a potential
problem. Similarly, with increased experience, the
cardiologists never ask for standby for PTCA. Those
nasty earlier conversions were during the learning
curve, when we did not know the limits. We know where
the limits are now, and it will be safe: limited
traction for first graft (LAD), with a few sutures
just above phrenic nerve, use of shunts always, not
accepting any extrasystole, (and sorting out what is
causing them immediately), careful manipulation for
last grafts by verticalisation only, and not accepting
ANY hypotension before carrying on.
I have recently changed to 100% OPCAB, and you can
immediately see the difference, and the major
difference is seen not only in hospital, but during
the first 3 months.

--- hgrmd at aol.com wrote:

> Tea,
>   Knowing you as I do, I've no doubt that you speak
> the truth about your OPCAB experience (For once, I'm
> not kidding with you.).  I like the analogy of
> conversing with the heart and waiting for a
> response.  You have to be sure that the heart will
> tolerate that particularly position for the few
> minutes it takes to construct the anastomosis. 
> However, I still maintain that a lot of OPCAB
> surgeons and their publications tend to ignore the
> emergent conversions with their inherent high M and
> M.  
>   If you don't want to have a pump in the room while
> you do OPCAB, that's your business.  I don't think
> it would be a particularly strong selling point to
> your patients and referrals.  I would also
> conveniently not let your carrier know of your
> plans.
> Hal
>  
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tacuff at swbell.net
> To: OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
> Sent: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:49 AM
> Subject: Re: AW: AW: [HSF] On pump beating heart
> 
> 
> It could happen, and does it if one does not develop
> an understanding of what is 
> acceptable in positioning or not. It is like a
> conversation with the heart. You 
> have to wait a minute or two for the response, but
> it can save you much misery. 
> It is like rushing into a small bleed on the aorta
> or ventricle with big sutures 
> and clamps. Or paying no attention to your wife. I
> haven't converted emergently 
> in several years. I can actually only remember one
> case of converting during the 
> anastomosis over the past decade. I have massaged
> the heart occasionally, but so 
> have all of you other reasons. Temporary bumps are
> temporary bumps and is a 
> characteristic of working on the heart not the
> technique per se.  The conversion 
> was a long endarterectomy and the patient kept
> having VT, but could wait for the 
> pump. I am thinking of not even having the pump set
> up any more, since we don't 
> use it without telling before hand that the heart is
> talking trash to me. 
> Honestly, I get in more trouble
>  with emergent need for CPB after I have weaned off
> the stupid thing. That is 
> not nearly as common as the (good?) old days, but I
> am willing to bet it is much 
> more common (even relatively) than is the need for
> an experienced off pump 
> surgeon to crash on. Do I lie? I doubt it. I see
> what goes for normal in other 
> ORs.
> tea
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "Hgrmd at aol.com" <Hgrmd at aol.com>
> To: OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:25:08 AM
> Subject: Re: AW: AW: [HSF] On pump beating heart
> 
> 
> Roberto,
>   I've done OPCAB on unstable patients.  It's scary
> as heck until  you get 
> the LIMA plugged in.  In a patient who had already
> fibrillated, I  wouldn't 
> consider using it, nor would I want any surgeon
> doing as such on one of  my 
> family 
> members.  Can you get away with it?  Probably.  But
> I  think it's foolhardy.  
> As I said previously, a lot of papers on OPCAB don't
>  take into consideration 
> the emergent conversions when they compare the 2 
> modalities.  The few papers 
> I've seen on emergent conversion to on pump  show
> extremely high death and 
> morbidity.
> Hal
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Dr. David G. Harris, FCS, MMED,
Cardiothoracic Surgeon        
Suite A2                                
Tygerberg Hospital, 7505       
Cape Town, South Africa.            
Tel +27-21-9762347             
Fax +27-21-9761157      Mobile +27-83-3309587
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