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Criteria for selection of patients for mechanical circulatory support

1971; Elsevier BV; Volume: 27; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0002-9149(71)90079-8

1879-1913

John H. Kennedy, Donald L. Bricker,

Trauma Management and Diagnosis

The experience with 36 patients referred for possible mechanical circulatory assistance is reviewed. The criterion for assisted circulation in the 32 patients so treated was either cardiac arrest or a decreasing cardiac output, estimated by the indicator-dilution technique or inferred from a progressively increasing arteriovenous oxygen difference, in spite of vigorous supportive treatment. Although at present the heart-lung machine is the only method of wide clinical applicability, other promising devices are undergoing limited clinical trial. It will be necessary to identify mechanisms of preterminal cardiac failure and to select a method appropriate to the physiologic abnormality.