Technique Articles

Technical Description of the Use of Selective Perfusion Techniques During the Norwood Procedure for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

^* Department of Perfusion Technology, Rush University Medical Center, College of Health Sciences, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois
^† Department of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery, Center for Congenital and Structural Heart Disease, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Address correspondence to: David Leonard Chabot, MS, CCP, Staff Perfusionist/Instructor, Department of Perfusion Technology, Rush University Medical Center, 1021F Armour Academic Center, College of Health Sciences, Rush University, 600 South Pauline Street, Chicago, IL 60612. E-mail: david_l_chabot@rush.edu

Received: 2 May 2011
Accepted: 2 August 2011

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Norwood procedure for surgical palliation of hypoplastic left heart syndrome in 1983, refinements have been made to the original procedure to improve patient outcomes while still accomplishing the original goals of the procedure. One of these refinements has been the introduction of regional selective perfusion to limit the duration of circulatory arrest times and optimize the regional flow distribution. In this paper we describe our technique for performing selective cerebral and lower body perfusion during the Norwood procedure.