Regional blood flow distribution from the proximal arterial cannula during veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in neonatal dog.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is frequently used for treatment of patients with severe hypoxemia due to life-threatening respiratory failure. Due to this hypoxemia, the myocardium of these patients is insufficiently provided with oxygen, and consequently their cardiac function commonly deteriorates. But veno-arterial (V-A) ECMO provides oxygenated blood to the coronary arteries from ECMO circuit insufficiently. To increase the coronary blood flow distributed from ECMO, we placed the arterial cannula 1 cm above the aortic valve and evaluated the regional blood from the proximal arterial cannula in comparison with the distal cannula. Eight neonatal dogs weighting 1.8-2.5 kg were supported by V-A ECMO. The regional blood flow from the arterial cannula was measured by injection of colored microspheres into ECMO circuit. The site of the arterial cannula was changed under fluoroscopy. The bypass flow was maintained at either 50 or 100 ml/min/kg. We found that the coronary blood flow distributed from the proximal arterial cannula was significantly higher than that from the distal cannula. The proximal arterial cannula appears necessary to provide sufficient oxygenated blood to the coronary circulation during V-A ECMO. Therefore, it is expected that the increased cardiac function may improved, and that the survival rate of the patients with retarded cardiac function due to severe hypoxemia may increase by proximal placement of the arterial cannula during V-A ECMO.