Indian Journal of Extra-Corporeal Technology
Open Access
  • Year: 2012
  • Volume: 22
  • Issue: 1

Hypoxic Brain Injury caused by Accidental Pump Vaporizer Disconnection

  • Author:
  • Gows Babu, Manoharan Henry, Sankar Manickam, Nischal Pandya, Roy Gnanamuthu, Jyoti Prasad Kalita, Vinayak Shukla
  • Total Page Count: 3
  • Page Number: 48 to 50

*Perfusionist

**Senior Perfusionist

***Cardiac Surgeon

****Chief Cardiac Surgeon

*****Consultant Cardiac Anesthetist

Department Of Cardio Thoracic surgery, Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore

Presented at the 12th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Extra-Corporeal Technology February 2012, Kolkata, India

Abstract

A 61-year-old gentleman underwent a mitral valve replacement (MVR) with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) under normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The anaesthetic agent vaporiser with isoflurane was connected to the pump. After a short period the arterial line blood appeared dark red in colour. Arterial blood gas revealed a PO2 of 53 mmHg and PCO2 of 61 mmHg. FiO2 and sweep gas flow were increased immediately to no avail. An oxygenator failure was suspected. The patient was cooled down. It was discovered that the vaporiser was not fixed properly. The vaporiser was discontinued and through the oxygen flow meter 100% FiO2 was given. The PO2 came up and the surgery was completed expediently. This case will be discussed elaborately. (Ind J Extra Corpor Technol 2012;22:48–50)

Keywords

Isoflurane, oxygen blender, oxygen flow meter, hypoxic brain injury, vaporizer