Emergency interventional lung assist for pulmonary hypertension.

We present a 15-yr-old-girl who underwent interventional lung assist via Novalung (Novalung GmbH, Lotzenaecker, Heckingen, Germany) insertion as a bridge to bilateral lung transplantation for pulmonary veno-occlusive disease. This is the first pediatric and smallest patient to receive the device. Central cannulation was chosen to optimize blood flow through the device by enabling larger-sized cannulae in a patient with high pulmonary artery pressure. Novalung provided circulatory support with oxygenation obviating the need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation while waiting for lung transplantation.