• Navid Madershahian, Ragi Nagib, Jens Wippermann, Justus Strauch, and Thorsten Wahlers.
• Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany. Navid.Madershahian@med.uni-jena.de
• J Card Surg. 2006 Mar 1;21(2):168-9.

ObjectiveCannulation of the femoral vessels for cardiopulmonary support is a common approach for many cardiac procedures as well as access of choice for many emergency bypass systems such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. A serious complication of prolonged femoral cannulation remains the ischemic injury of the distal limb.SubjectsTo minimize the incidence of ischemia in the cannulated leg, we have begun to provide antegrade femoral blood flow by placing a vascular introducer percutaneously distal to the arterial cannula into the superficial femoral artery and connecting it to the side port of the arterial line.ConclusionThis technique of distal limb perfusion was found to be safe and effective in preventing lower limb ischemia for patients with prolonged femoral cannulation for extracorporeal circulatory support.

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