A graduate with distinction from Georgetown University School of Medicine, John Macoviak MD MBA is a retired cardiothoracic surgeon. John Macoviak MD MBA has researched a wide variety of heart-related conditions, and is a co-author of several medical papers, including “Hemiarch aortic perfusion decreases brain emboli in beating heart surgery.”
An abbreviation of beating heart surgery, BHS refers to any surgery that is performed on the heart while it is still beating which avoids cross clamping the aorta as is usually done with the heart at rest. . One of the main concerns of doctors performing heart surgery is the maintenance of blood circulation (perfusion) during the procedure using the heart lung bypass machine. Aortic cross clamping to stop the heart can result in the formation of cholesterol emboli. Emboli are obstructions in blood vessels that can be also caused by air bubbles, blood clots, or other matter in the blood..
Research was conducted on 13 pigs to study the effect of directing cold blood perfusion in the aorta to the brain to prevent embolism damage to the brain. The aorta is the largest artery in the body, emanating from the upper left chamber of the heart to form an arch in the chest, with branches that convey blood to the brain and other parts of the upper body as well as lower parts of the body. .
During the research, tiny colored microspheres (15 micrometers in diameter) were injected into the base of the aorta and left upper heart chamber of some test subjects. A group of the test subjects had dual blood lumen catheters inserted into the base of the aorta to help channel blood from the upper lumen into the aorta with cold blood, and the lower lumen with warm blood to the rest of the body. While another group had no catheter (to serve as control). At the end of the research, the group with the catheter perfusing cold blood to the brain had fewer emboli going to the brain as compared to the control group.
John Macoviak 