ABSTRACT
Intraaortic balloon pumping (IABP) is a standard therapeutic tool for managing acute left ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction or cardiac surgery in the adult patient. Its use in infants and children, however, remains limited for a variety of reasons, First, there is limited availability of the smaller-volume catheters needed for infants and small children. Second, the catheters are more difficult to insert than those in adults because children more commonly require a femoral arterial cut-down or aortic arch approach. Third, because infants and children are physiologically different from adults, many feel that IABP is inherently less effective in the more compliant pediatric vasculature.
