Isolated limb perfusion

Isolated limb perfusion is a chemotherapeutic technique used to deliver high doses of cancer drugs directly into the bloodstream. A tourniquet is used to cut off blood flow of the arm or leg of a patient, which isolates the circulation of the limb. Blood is taken from the limb, and highly concentrated drugs are mixed with the blood. Next, the blood is recirculated into the body.^[1][2][3]

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Purpose

Isolated limb perfusion was first introduced into the clinic by American surgeons from New Orleans in the mid-1950's. The main purpose of the isolated limb perfusion technique is to deliver a very high dose of chemotherapy to tumour sites without causing overwhelming systemic damage. (Unfortunately, while these approaches can be useful against solitary or limited metastases, they are - by definition - not systemic and therefore do not treat distributed metastases or micrometastases).

In the early 1990's an alternative technique was developed at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia: isolated limb infusion. This technique is less complex and uses a minimal invasive percutaneous approach to circulatory isolate a limb.

See also

• Chemotherapy

References