Can you guess what this medical device is?
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This is an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). Its typically inserted via the femoral artery and sits inside the aorta. It’s a routine tool cardiologists use for the treatment of cardiogenic shock
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In cardiogenic shock the heart cannot supply enough oxygen to meet the demands of the body. This device helps improve cardiac output by decreasing myocardial oxygen demand by decreasing afterload while improving coronary blood flow during
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It does this via counter pulsation- it inflates during diastole and deflates during systole. Systolic deflation decreases afterload through a vacuum effect and indirectly increases forward flow from the heart. Diastolic inflation increases blood flow to the coronary arteries via retrograde flow. You can remember this important effect because the coronaries are primarily perfuses during diastole. Hence, it inflates during diastole to push blood back to the heart
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Contraindications: 1️⃣Severe aortic regurgitation (the physiology won’t work), 2️⃣Aortic dissection (duh), and 3️⃣ severe peripheral vascular disease (can’t get the balloon up the artery).
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Complications/things to monitor: always check distal pulses pedal pulses to monitor for ischemia to the leg
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Anticoagulation is technically not necessary as long as the pump is on but we often use heparin given foreign bodies in the body can be prothrombotic
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