Experimental Comparative Study Between A Centrifugal And A New Pulsatile Pump: Platelet Assessment And Histological Study After Extracorporeal Circulation

Introduction and objective. The aim of this investigation was to study organ injury and the effect on platelets of a new pulsatile pump for extracorporeal circulation (ECC) compared to a Biomedicus centrifugal pump.Materials and methods. Thirteen pigs, eight in pulsatile group (PG) and five in centrifugal group (CG), underwent partial extracorporeal circulation during 3 h. The animals were euthanized 3 h post-ECC. Morphological study of fragments of ventricular wall, liver, lung and kidney was performed thereafter. The platelet study was both quantitative and qualitative with a PFA-100 system.Results and discussion. The decrease of platelets count from baseline to 3 h post-ECC was only significant in CG (p = 0.009). Platelet function was impaired in both groups, but the value of col/ ADP increased significantly only in CG (p < 0.001). The increase of col/ EPI was larger in CG (p = 0.07) than in PG (p = 0.2). In CG, we observed centrilobular hepatic necrosis accompanied by sinusoidal dilatation and congestion, multiple focuse of myocardial ischemia, and mild to moderate pulmonary interstitial edema. In PG, we observed diffuse centrilobular sinusoidal congestion in the liver, congestion and capillary dilatation of low intensity in the ventricular wall, and non significant pulmonary interstitial septal edema. In the kidney, both groups showed degenerative changes of tubular cells and non-significant tubular dilatation.Conclusions. The new pulsatile pump preserves the platelets well compared to a Biomedicus pump. Moreover, these results suggest a better peripheral circulation in the PG.