Intra-abdominal Versus Descending Thoracic Cannulation Techniques for Abdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion
Grace Boyne, Olivia Claire Walker, Jinyu Du, Johanna Bayer, Juan Sebastian Danobeitia, Geoffrey Funk, Amar Gupta, Seung-Hee Lee, Eric Martinez, Kara Monday, Scott Noesges, Murphy Rayle, Giuliano Testa, Anji WallBackground.
Abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (A-NRP) is postmortem perfusion of organs in the abdominal cavity and can be performed using multiple approaches, including femoral, intra-abdominal, and thoracic. Our program began with surgeons performing intra-abdominal cannulations with mechanical or balloon occlusion of the descending thoracic aorta for A-NRP procedures. Recently, we developed a novel technique using the descending thoracic aorta for arterial cannulation with right atrial venous drainage.
Methods.
All A-NRP cases performed by Regional Perfusion Services from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, were retrospectively reviewed. Intraoperative parameters were collected for comparison.
Results.
During the study period, 28 intra-abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (IA-NRP) cannulations and 47 descending thoracic normothermic regional perfusion (DT-NRP) cannulations were performed by 16 surgeons. Median cannulation time was shorter in the DT-NRP cohort (8.5 versus 10.0 min;
Conclusions.
DT-NRP cannulation can be implemented for A-NRP with a quick learning curve, providing an additional cannulation option to the IA-NRP approach.