[Artificial circulation in high-risk percutaneous coronary interventions]

In their everyday practical clinical work cardiovascular surgeons sometimes have to deal with patients at extremely high risk of both percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) and direct myocardial revascularization. A method of choice in such situations may become a PCI supported by artificial circulation (AC), for which foreign and Russian authors propose using systems of prolonged extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The present work was aimed at sharing our experience with using standard systems of AC and their modifications (mini-circuit systems) for performing high-risk PCIs. Between October 2011 and November 2014, PCIs supported by artificial circulation were performed in a total of ten patients. All had extremely high risk of PCI due to coronary artery lesions [subocclusion of the trunk of the left coronary artery (LCA) combined with occlusion or significant stenosis of the right coronary artery (RCA)], concomitant pathology (obesity, diabetes mellitus, age, etc.) or critical state (circulatory arrest, resuscitating measures). Three patients during PCI developed ventricular fibrillation and one patient suffered an episode of asystole. All cardiac arrhythmias after restoration of the coronary blood flow disappeared spontaneously on the background of extracorporeal support. The only lethal outcome was registered during emergency PCI in a female patient admitted to the roentgen-operating room in the state of clinical death, on the background of continuing resuscitation measures. The presented methods of assisted circulation based on the standard AC systems and modification thereof (mini-circuit system) proved efficient. They make it possible to perform high-risk PCIs, including in clinics having neither appropriate equipment nor experience in ECMO.