Abstract
A simple, safe, indirect technique for decompression of the left heart is described. Pulmonary artery venting produces immediate and total decompression of the left heart through spontaneous retrograde pulmonary flow across the open mitral valve in the hypothermic (29°C) electrically fibrillated heart. This allows free retrograde flow of left heart blood across the pulmonary valve into the right ventricle, where it is taken up by the usual caval cannulas. In 25 of 66 consecutive patients undergoing elective ventricular fibrillation and anoxic arrest, left heart venting was necessary as indicated by rising left heart pressures. Total cardiac decompression was immediately and completely achieved by this simple indirect technique. Direct left heart venting, with its associated risks and disadvantages, was never necessary, and we now consider it obsolete.
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