Double-Helical Reservoir Heart-Lung Machine

Abstract

The past few years have brought about a variety of techniques for direct-vision intracardiac surgery. External hypothermia was used first, but because of its limitations it has been largely replaced by other techniques. A disposable, autoclavable, simple, small-volume oxygenator with minimal destruction to blood elements would seem to most nearly meet the requirements of an ideal oxygenator.¹Because of flow-reservoir-oxygenation relationships, the combination of hypothermia and extracorporeal circulation may simplify the construction of such a heart-lung machine.²A relatively small-volume apparatus for hypothermic total-body cardiopulmonary bypass will be described and its clinical application related. The priming of this system with 5% dextrose in water which is actually used for perfusion purposes will be stressed. <h3>Description and Method of Priming of the Heart-Lung Machine for Hypothermic Perfusion</h3> The system is a modified DeWall-Lillehei oxygenator and is depicted in Figure 1.^3,4The details of the design of the doublehelical reservoir heart-lung machine