Preoperative Topical Hypothermia used in Prolonged Severe Lower Limb Ischemia to Avoid Ischemic Damage - The First Clinical Experience

Severe lower limb ischemia TASC IIB/III with sensory and motor neurologic deficiencies leads to prolonged hospital care, amputation, and death in 20-70 % of cases. We present our first clinical experience of the use of preoperative topical hypothermia to improve muscular viability in these patients. Two hours after onset of symptoms, six 4-liter plastic bags were filled with snow and packed against the ischemic leg which was protected from frost injury by a layer of towels. After surgical revascularization four hours later muscular and neural functions in the leg were completely restored. A maximum serum myoglobin of 6500 ng/L (median 12000 ng/L in similar but untreated patients) postoperatively decreased to 1400 ng/L after 27 hours.