Life-threatening anaphylactic shock caused by porcine heparin intravenous infusion during mitral valve repair.

ing or cannulation of the ascending aorta bear a stroke risk of more than 8% in octogenarians and may have been the cause for emboli. However, we cannot rule out that air provided by the blower mister device entered the aorta through a leak between the proximal seal and the aortic wall and caused the emboli. The possibility of such a mechanism was proven in an animal experiment. This should be sufficient reason to strongly discourage the simultaneous use of the HEARTSTRING device in combination with a blower mister. References