During a routine valve procedure the operating surgeon placed a transeptal vent into the Left Ventricle (LV). When the vent pump was turned on it was noticed that the LV did not empty and air bubbles were seen in the left coronary arterial tree and a significant amount of air appeared to be in the LV on Transoesophageal Echo.

The problem was that the sucker used to vent the heart was not sucking. Another sucker was used and this rectified the problem. The LV emptied and the procedure continued. The patient suffered some neurological deficit that slowly resolved that was put down to this air embolus. It was felt that the sucker failure was due to the tubing in the raceway of that sucker being placed in the wrong direction.

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