The effect of carotid artery ligation on brain blood flow in newborn piglets.

The common carotid artery is often ligated and used to introduce a left ventricular catheter to perform blood flow studies with radioactive-labeled microspheres. In order to determine whether this procedure alters brain blood flow, 6 newborn piglets were studied. Five measures of brain blood flow were performed in each study; once before and then 4 times (at 20 min intervals) after ligation of the left common carotid artery. Ventilation was controlled using nitrous oxide and oxygen while the hematocrit was kept stable by intermittent transfusions. Brain blood flow was found to remain constant over the duration of the study. No differences in blood flow were found between the right and left sides of the brain. The data indicate that use of a common carotid artery for purposes of left ventricular catheterization do not alter the blood flow to the brain when the microsphere method is used. This facilitates surgical preparation when small animals are used for studies of brain blood flow hemodynamics.