Retrograde Perfusion

Retrograde perfusion, also called retroperfusion, is a technique for supplying oxygenated blood to an organ through its veins rather than its arteries, used during operations that interrupt the organ's normal arterial blood flow. In cerebral vascular surgery, for example, tubing placed in the femoral artery and the superior vena cava can redirect blood up the internal jugular vein to keep the brain perfused while its normal arterial supply is interrupted. The underlying method was pioneered by the physiologist Oscar Langendorff, who used it to perfuse isolated mammalian hearts for research, and it is still known in that laboratory context as Langendorff perfusion.