The preemptive use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to facilitate high risk percutaneous cardiac interventions: left main percutaneous coronary interventions and percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty.

Abstract

As percutaneous cardiac interventions continue to evolve, high-risk procedures are being performed on patients deemed too ill for surgery. What were once considered lower-risk procedures compared with open cardiac interventions may no longer be so because of the complex nature of the interventions and the complex comorbidities of the patients on whom these are being performed. We present a case involving high-risk percutaneous cardiac interventions (left main coronary angioplasty and aortic balloon valvuloplasty), facilitated by the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in a critically ill patient with severe aortic stenosis, left main coronary disease, and ischemic cardiomyopathy.