Heart-lung machine
The heart-lung machine is also called a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. It takes over for the heart by replacing the heart’s pumping action and by adding oxygen to the blood. This means that the heart will be still for the operation, which is necessary when the heart has to be opened (open heart surgery). When you are connected to the heart-lung machine, it does the same job that your heart and lungs would do. The heart-lung machine carries blood from the upper-right chamber of the heart (the right atrium) to a special reservoir called an oxygenator. Inside the oxygenator, oxygen bubbles up through the blood and enters the red blood cells. This causes the blood to turn from dark (oxygen-poor) to bright red (oxygen-rich). Then, a filter removes the air bubbles from the oxygen-rich blood, and the blood travels through a plastic tube to the body’s main blood conduit (the aorta). From the aorta, the blood moves throughout the rest of the body. The heart-lung machine can take over the work of the heart and lungs for hours. Trained technicians called perfusion technologists (blood flow specialists, also called the “pump team”) operate the heart-lung machine.
A machine that does the work both of the heart and of the lungs: pumping and oxygenating blood. Blood returning to the heart is diverted through a heart-lung machine before being returned to arterial circulation. Such machines may be used during open-heart surgery. The heart lung machine comprises a console base that houses all the electronics, power supply components, batteries, communications, power connections, and circuit breakers. There are typically four or five roller pumps on an HLM. Roller pumps peristaltically “massage” tubing to propel the blood through the tubing. A perfusionist operates a heart-lung machine, which is an artificial blood pump, which propels oxygenated blood to the patient's tissues while the surgeon operates on the heart. The perfusionist manages the physiological and metabolic demands of the patient while the cardiac surgeon operates on the heart. One of the scariest parts of bypass surgery having your heart stopped and going on a heart-lung machine while doctors fix your clogged arteries is safe even in the elderly and doesn't cause mental decline as many people have feared, two landmark studies show. In most cases, the machine is used to perform serious procedures that require the heart to be stopped. Patients are on the pump only as long as it takes to stop the heart from beating, complete open-heart surgery or a procedure on the lungs, and restart the heart.
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