The aim of our experimental work was to assess morphological changes of arterial wall that arise during different thawing protocols of a cryopreserved human aortic root allograft (CHARA) arterial wall. The experiment was performed on CHARAs. Two thawing protocols were tested: 1, CHARAs were thawed at a room temperature at +23°C; 2, CHARAs were placed directly into a water bath at +37°C. After fixation, all samples were washed in distilled water for 5 min, and dehydrated in a graded ethanol series (70, 85, 95, and 100%) for 5 min at each level. The tissue samples were then immersed in 100% hexamethyldisilazane for 10 minutes and air dried in an exhaust hood at room temperature. Processed samples were mounted on stainless steel stubs, coated with gold. Thawing protocol 1: All 6 (100%) samples showed loss of the endothelium and damage to the subendothelial layers with randomly dispersed circular defects and micro-fractures without smooth muscle cells contractions in the tunica media. Thawing protocol 2: All 6 (100%) samples showed loss of endothelium from the luminal surface, longitudinal corrugations in the direction of blood flow caused by smooth muscle cells contractions in the tunica media with frequent fractures in the subendothelial layer All the samples thawed at the room temperature showed smaller structural damage to the CHARA arterial wall with no smooth muscle cell contraction in tunica media when compared to the samples thawed in a water bath.

We present the case of a 62-year-old female patient admitted to our center for cardiogenic shock due to large inferior myocardial infarct. Echocardiography revealed dysfunction of left ventricle, dilation of right ventricle, mitral valve insufficiency, and a large posterior ventricular septal defect (VSD). Coronary angiography showed occlusion of the right coronary artery. An attempt of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of right coronary and posterior descending artery was not successful due to old thrombi. Despite inotropes and intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) there was severe hemodynamic instability. Therefore, we commenced veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a ventricular assist device (VAD). Immediately we obtained the stabilization of the patient and the improvement of the clinical conditions. The third day after implantation, the closure of the defect, mitral valve plasty, and bypass to posterior descending artery were performed. The patient was discharged from the hospital 59 days after the operation. Six months after the operation, the patient was in good condition.