Devices and methods are provided for temporarily inducing cardioplegic arrest in the heart of a patient and for establishing
cardiopulmonary bypass in order to facilitate
surgical procedures on the heart and its related blood vessels. Specifically, a
catheter based
system is provided for isolating the heart and coronary blood vessels of a patient from the remainder of the arterial
system and for infusing a cardioplegic agent into the patient's
coronary arteries to induce cardioplegic arrest in the heart. The
system includes an endoaortic partitioning
catheter having an expandable
balloon at its distal end which is expanded within the
ascending aorta to occlude the aortic lumen between the coronary ostia and the brachiocephalic
artery. Means for centering the
catheter tip within the
ascending aorta include specially curved shaft configurations, eccentric or shaped
occlusion balloons and a steerable catheter tip, which may be used separately or in combination. The shaft of the catheter may have a coaxial or multilumen construction. The catheter may further include piezoelectric pressure transducers at the distal tip of the catheter and within the
occlusion balloon. Means to facilitate nonfluoroscopic placement of the catheter include fiberoptic
transillumination of the
aorta and a secondary
balloon at the distal tip of the catheter for atraumatically contacting the
aortic valve. The system further includes a
dual purpose arterial bypass cannula and
introducer sheath for introducing the catheter into a
peripheral artery of the patient.