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A 31-year-old male was transferred to our hospital with severe heart failure due to viral myocarditis. He progressed to multiorgan failure requiring intubation and maximal doses of multiple vasopressors. Circulatory support was provided with an Impella device as a bridge to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) system. On full mechanical cardiovascular support, the patient's hemodynamic status improved and ECMO and Impella were explanted after 48 hours. Three days later, he was extubated and continued on to a full recovery. There are no specific therapies for fulminant myocarditis but first-line treatment is supportive care. ECMO is commonly used in patients with severe heart failure. In severe systolic dysfunction, left ventricular decompression is required to reduce myocardial wall stress, decrease myocardial oxygen requirements, and enhance the chances of recovery. The Impella, an active support system, is less invasive than classical decompressive techniques and is associated with lower requirements for blood products with fewer thromboembolic complications. This is the only case reported of the contemporary use of Impella and ECMO as a bridge to full recovery in an adult with myocarditis. It also presents a novel use of the Impella device in decompressing the left ventricle of an adult patient on ECMO.

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A Jehovah Witness patient with renal failure on dialysis, with low hemoglobin, underwent urgent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting without systemic heparinization. The pros, cons, and details of the technique used are discussed.

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BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury is a frequent problem among many critically ill patients, commonly in the context of multiple organ failure and decreased renal perfusion. Its presence conveys a poor prognosis. Currently, effective therapeutic interventions are limited and dopaminergic agonists have been suggested as an option to prevent further damage. METHODS: We performed a randomized, double-blinded, prospective crossover study in 17 patients admitted to our trauma intensive care unit (ICU) with evidence of impaired renal function. Patients were randomized to a 24-h intravenous infusion of low-dose fenoldopam or placebo. When the infusion of fenoldopam or placebo was completed, patients underwent a 24-h "washout" period in which no study intervention was performed. This sequence was repeated in each patient with the opposite agent, so each patient served as his own control. Four-hour creatinine collections were taken during the last 4 h of each infusion and washout periods to determine creatinine clearance changes during and after the administration of the study drug. RESULTS: The creatinine clearance was higher with fenoldopam infusion than with placebo infusion (P = 0.045). The FENa was not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that low-dose Fenoldopam increases creatinine clearance in the critically ill with renal insufficiency. Fenoldopam may be a useful drug in ICU patients with early renal dysfunction.

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