Surgery of the descending thoracic aorta: spinal cord protection with the Gott shunt

From July, 1974, to July, 1987, surgical treatment of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms was performed in 173 patients at l'Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. The cause of the aneurysms was arteriosclerosis or medial degeneration in 83 patients, trauma in 50, dissection in 34, and a congenital malformation in 6. A single method of external shunting provided distal perfusion in all patients in the series. A 9-mm Gott aneurysm shunt was placed preferentially between the ascending aorta (67%) and the descending aorta (60%). Alternative sites of proximal cannulation (aortic arch, 9%; proximal descending aorta, 22%; left ventricle, 2%) and distal cannulation (abdominal aorta, 3%; left femoral artery, 37%) were chosen based on the location and the extent of the aortic aneurysm. No systemic heparinization was used. In the last 40 patients, a flowmeter adapted for use with the shunt allowed the recording of shunt flow (mean, 2,475 ml/min; range, 1,100 to 4,000 ml/min). Hospital mortality, including patients with ruptured aneurysms, was 15% (26/173). The mean aortic cross-clamp time was 37 minutes (range, 8 to 105 minutes). Of the 173 patients, 168 survived long enough to allow accurate clinical evaluation of the function of the spinal cord: no paraplegia or other spinal cord ischemic injury occurred. To date, our clinical experience has demonstrated the effectiveness of the 9-mm Gott shunt in preserving the functional integrity of the spinal cord during cross-clamping of the thoracic aorta.