Thirty-four patients with congenital cardiac disease were studied to evaluated the role of ultrafiltration after cardiopulmonary bypass without homologous blood transfusion. We used either polypropylene microporous hollow fiber hemoconcentrator (HC-30M or 100M) or polyacrylonitrile microporous hollow fiber hemoconcentrator (PHC-500). Ultrafiltration was useful in the reduction of fluid overloading after cardiopulmonary bypass with extreme hemodilution. Thirty-two patients tolerated the procedure uneventfully without donor blood transfusion and were discharged from the hospital. The values of hematocrit, serum protein and free hemoglobin increased significantly after ultrafiltration with either type of hemoconcentrator. However the degree of concentration of blood components was significantly higher with polyacrylonitrile hemoconcentrator than those with polypropylene hemoconcentrator. These results indicated that ultrafiltration was useful for maintaining water balance after cardiopulmonary bypass without homologous blood transfusion in pediatric cardiac surgery and that polyacrylonitrile microporous hollow fiber hemoconcentrator should be employed in patients with shorter bypass time and less hemolysis.

An 80-year-old man was transferred to our hospital because of blunt traumatic aortic arch injury caused by a fall. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a pseudoaneurysm and mediastinal hematoma around the aortic arch, right hemothorax, left hemopneumothorax, lung contusion and spine fractures. His hemodynamic condition was stable but he required mechanical ventilation because of severe hypoxemia. Surgery was postponed until twelve days after the injury, when his lung function improved and active bleeding decreased. During surgery we found that the intimal disruption extended to half of the circumference of the aortic arch, and thus performed total arch replacement under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest and selective cerebral perfusion. The patient suffered respiratory failure and pneumonia postoperatively as well as multiple cerebral infarctions. He was referred to a rehabilitation center on postoperative day 130.

Transcatheter embolization of 25 aortopulmonary collateral arteries (7 bronchial arteries and 18 intercostal arteries) was attempted prior to intracardiac repair in 7 patients. The underlying disease was tetralogy of Fallot in 3 patients, pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect in 2, double-outlet right ventricle with ventricular septal defect and pulmonary stenosis in 1 and tricuspid stenosis with pulmonary atresia in 1. The intervals between embolization and intracardiac repair ranged from 0 to 17 days (mean 4.5 days). Embolization resulted in total occlusion in 7 bronchial arteries and 17 intercostal arteries, with an overall success rate of 96%. Complications included a coil dislodgement from a collateral artery into the aorta in one patient, necessitating surgical removal of the dislodged coil from the femoral artery, an exacerbation of cyanosis and dyspnea on exercise in 5, and slight fever in 2. In one patient with tetralogy of Fallot, who had 5 collateral vessels, transcatheter embolization caused hypoxemia, bradycardia and hypotension and therefore intracardiac repair was performed immediately after embolization. Aortopulmonary collateral arteries in patients with congenital heart disease can be effectively treated by transcatheter embolization. Embolization should be performed just before intracardiac repair because an excessive decrease in arterial oxygen saturation after embolization may require an emergency operation.