Authors:
Giuseppe D'Avenio
1
;
Antonio Amodeo
2
and
Mauro Grigioni
1
Affiliations:
1
Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy
;
2
Pediatric Hospital “Bambino Gesù”, Italy
Keyword(s):
Cardiac Surgery, Congenital Heart Disease, Mathematical Modelling.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications and Services
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Signal Processing
;
Cardiovascular Signals
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Medical Image Detection, Acquisition, Analysis and Processing
Abstract:
Since many years, patients with functionally single ventricles are subjected to surgical operations, meant to create a more favourable haemodynamics. The bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (BCPA) is one of such operations, and is principally meant to prepare a future total cavopulmonary anastomosis, i.e., the direct connection of the two vene cavae to the pulmonary arteries. Since the circulation ensuing from a BCPA is basically composed of two circuits in parallel, the upper and the lower circulation, the latter being external to the lung perfusion, there is a potential problem of low oxygen saturation. It has been proposed that an additional pulmonary blood flow, such as that imparted by a modified Blalock-Taussig shunt could be beneficial as for the oxygen saturation. In the present study, this hypothesis is verified by means of a lumped parameter model, considering different degrees of shunting. The results support the view that an additional source of blood flow can have a
beneficial effect on the pediatric patient operated on with a BCPA. Future comparison of numerical results with actual clinical data will allow to evaluate the predictive capabilities of the model.
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