What does ';cross clamp'; mean in medicine? How does it apply to heart surgery when they cross-clamp the aorta?

I'd like to know what this is and how it is done.What does ';cross clamp'; mean in medicine? How does it apply to heart surgery when they cross-clamp the aorta?
A cross-clamp is a tool used to close off (clamp) a large artery, often the aorta, during surgery when it is necessary to prevent blood from passing through that vessel. This is what cross-clamp means. Think of it as a large hemastat, it stops blood.





How is it done? Suppose you have damage to a large artery. I could cross-clamp the artery above the damage, temporarily stopping blood from flowing through the damaged area while I make the repair. When I'm confident the repair will hold, I release the clamp and watch for leaks.





How does it apply to heart surgery? If repair needs to be done to the heart, it's much, much easier to do this and see what you're doing if the heart isn't full of blood. But you gotta work FAST.What does ';cross clamp'; mean in medicine? How does it apply to heart surgery when they cross-clamp the aorta?
It means that you quite literally clamp the vessell with a big clamp so that blood can't get through it; just like if you pinched off a water hose so that water stopped flowing.
This is done mostly for an aneurysm repair. Does not provide perfusion to the distal area beyond the surgical site. High pressures are seen in the proximal vessels to the cross clamping. Least benefit to patient with this method due to distal ischemia. Possible damage to spinal cord, kidneys, bowel, liver due to ischemia time or patient risk factors. I hope this information is some help to you!