Porcine Heart Excision: A Protocol to Extract Porcine Heart for Cardiac Transplant

After confirming a lack of response to noxious stimulus, perform a median sternotomy on the anesthetized pig, and once the heart has been exposed, use Metzenbaum scissors to open the pericardium.

Use 1-0 silk sutures to fix the pericardial edges to the sternum, and gradually collect 750 milliliters of whole blood from the two-stage venous cannula, placed in the right atrium in an autoclaved glass container over a period of 15 minutes, while simultaneously replacing the volume with 1 liter of an isotonic crystalloid solution.

Add the blood to a perfusion circuit primed with 750 milliliters of Krebs-Henseleit buffer supplemented with 8% albumin, and place a 14-gauge cardioplegia needle and cannula into the ascending aorta. Secure the cardioplegia needle on the aorta with a snare, and connect the cardioplegia cannula to the cardioplegia bag.

Add 100 milliliters of blood to 400 milliliters of cardioplegia. After the end of exsanguination, cross-clamp the ascending aorta with an aortic clamp. Next, deliver the cardioplegic solution into the aortic root.

When all of the solution has been administered, remove the clamp and excise the heart, including all of the aortic arch vessels and a segment of the descending aorta.