An aortic cross-clamp is a surgical instrument used in cardiac surgery

Cardiac surgery

Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...

 to clamp the aorta

Aorta

The aorta is the largest artery in the body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it branches off into two smaller arteries...

 and separate the systemic circulation

Systemic circulation

Systemic circulation is the part of the cardiovascular system which carries oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body, and returns deoxygenated blood back to the heart. This physiologic theory of circulation was first described by William Harvey...

 from the outflow of the heart

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

.

An aortic cross clamping procedure serves, for example, in the repairing of coarctation of the aorta. In newborns, the treatment of choice for this condition is resection and primary anastomosis

Anastomosis

An anastomosis is the reconnection of two streams that previously branched out, such as blood vessels or leaf veins. The term is used in medicine, biology, mycology and geology....

. The clamping of the aorta excludes the systemic circulation, by definition, thus causing an ischemia. When a long cross clamping period (longer than 25 min) or a drop in distal aortic pressure below 50-60 mmHg is anticipated, the use of an intraoperative shunt may prevent complications such as paraplegia.