[HSF] Deairing the heart

[Ani Anyanwu]

The numerous and highly variable views on this topic, to the extent of even discussing how to put a needle in the aorta to extract air best (I must confess I was stunned at the seriousness many attach to this), consolidate my view that most of what we do in this regard (deairing) is either, ill-understood, inconsequential or irrelevant. 

My suspicion is that it doesn’t really matter what we do - so far as one gets the gross air out, the rest is fine talk. I know I will as usually incur the wrath of my seniors, but if it is so crucial and as technical as list members portray, how come we are getting so many highly opinionated but varying views? Surely they can't all be right at the same time? Maybe they can all be wrong though...Of course the red flag is that practically no contributor on this has provided evidence (experimental or clinical) to justify their deairing strategy - at the end of the day it is just surgeon preference, voodoo or a recipe handed by our teachers. I suspect whatever one chooses (apart from ignoring the air) works, not because of what we do, but because of the attempts we make (by whatever means) to remove the air.

Ani