Original Article

Percutaneous Cardiopulmonary Support System for the Treatment of Fulminant Myocarditis

Ohgaki Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan

^* Address correspondence to: Tomio Koyama, BE, CE, Ohgaki Municipal Hospital, 4-86, Minaminokawa, Ohgaki-city, Gifu 503, Japan

Abstract

We have developed a simple percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS) system. The circuit of the system is set up and sterilized beforehand and can be used promptly in an emergency situation. We used the PCPS on three patients with fulminant myocarditis and treated them successfully.

Case 1 was a 53-yr-old man and Case 2 was a 12-yr-old girl. They had failed to respond to treatment of their circulatory states with conventional therapy. Their circulatory states improved dramatically after application of PCPS with 2 L/min blood flow. They were weaned from PCPS after 107 and 227 hours use, respectively. Case 3 was a 37-yr-old woman who developed ventricular fibrillation which was resistant to drug therapy and cardioversion. After starting PCPSwith4 L/min blood flow, arrhythmia disappeared and her circulatory state improved. She was successfully weaned after 39-hour of PCPS.

Patients with fulminant myocarditis fall into circulatory collapse which is resistant to conventional therapy, but there is a possibility that cardiac function will recover after the acute phase of myocarditis. Therefore, PCPS can be the only treatment of the circulatory collapse of fulminant myocarditis, which is refractory to conventional therapy.