Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Cannulation Site Affects Coronary and Cerebral Perfusion When Combined With Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump

Use of the ViVitro Labs Super Pump to build a complex mock circulatory loop to study the effect of VA-ECMO/IABP combination on the with systemic, coronary, cerebral, and renal circulation. In this study the ViVitro Labs system is used to improve the outcome of clinical procedures. "We used the same silicone circuit as in our previous publication (model ref T-S-N-009+; Elastrat, Geneva, Switzerland). To prevent the formation of air bubbles when testing at a heart rate of 100 bpm, and to improve the quality of aortic flow measurements, a rigid plastic grid was placed in the compliance reservoir tank. We used a pulsatile pump (Superpump; ViVitro Labs, Inc., Victoria, BC, Canada) to simulate cardiac function at the circuit inlet. Positioning the pump in line with the aortic root was the configuration with the fewest disturbances flow and pressure measurements (Figure 1)"