A New Challenge for Mini-Extracorporeal Circulation: Closing Atrial Septal Defects

摘要

Mini-extracorporeal circulation (MECC) (JOSTRA AG, Hirrlingen, Germany) is a recently introduced circuit in cardiac surgery. MECC is a closed system with a centrifugal pump, an oxygenator without a venous and cardiotomyreservoir. The patient functions as the venous reservoir.A pitfall is that the extracorporeal circuit must be kept air free. Among the advantages of this new circuit are reduced inflammatory responses and reduced transfusion of blood products. Its use in the authors' institution is initially restricted to coronary artery bypass grafting.The authors present a case in which they inadvertentlyfound an atrial septal defect (ASD) and had to choosebetween converting to a conventional procedure (classicextracorporeal circulation [ECC]) or adapting the MECC insuch a way that the beneficial effects could be maintained.