How are patients kept alive during open heart surgery?

Why it matters: Coronary-artery bypass surgery is the most common open-heart surgery in the U.S. It’s used to treat heart disease by rerouting blood around a blockage. Traditionally, the patient is kept alive by virtue of a heart-lung pump, which allows surgeons to stop the heart during surgery.

Who keeps the heart alive during surgery?

Perfusionists are vital members of the cardiovascular surgical team because they are responsible for running the heart-lung (cardiopulmonary bypass) machine. Sometimes cardiovascular surgeons can operate on the heart when it is beating, but often they need to have it still.

What machine keeps your heart beating during surgery?

The heart-lung machine allows the heart’s beating to be stopped, so that the surgeon can operate on a surface which is blood-free and still. The heart-lung machine maintains life despite the lack of a heartbeat, removing carbon dioxide from the blood and replacing it with oxygen before pumping it around the body.

How is the heart-lung machine connected to the patient?

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.

Are you intubated during open-heart surgery?

After you are asleep, the anesthesiologist will insert a tube down your throat into your airway. This endotracheal tube is connected to a ventilator that breathes for you during surgery.

What is antegrade cardioplegia?

Antegrade cannulae are designed to deliver cardioplegia solution to the heart via the coronary ostia in the normal direction of blood flow (antegrade perfusion). Medtronic offers both aortic root cannulae and coronary ostial cannulae.

What is perfusion Science?

Cardiovascular perfusion is the science of providing extracorporeal circulation in order to artificially support and temporarily replace a patient’s respiratory and circulatory systems.

What is LVAD used for?

A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is implanted in your chest. It helps pump blood from the left ventricle of your heart and on to the rest of your body. A control unit and battery pack are worn outside your body and are connected to the LVAD through a port in your skin.

What does an Impella device do?

The Impella pulls blood from the ventricle and pushes it out into the aorta, delivering oxygen-rich blood to the rest of your body. This allows your heart to rest while the doctor performs the PCI.

Where is the heart-lung machine connected?

Illustration of one typical way that a heart-lung machine may be connected to the veins and arteries near the heart. The three implements on the left represent (from top to bottom) the pump, the oxygenator, and the reservoir.

Is a ventilator and intubation the same?

Intubation is the process of inserting a breathing tube through the mouth and into the airway. A ventilator—also known as a respirator or breathing machine—is a medical device that provides oxygen through the breathing tube.

What is an angioplasty?

A coronary angioplasty is a procedure used to widen blocked or narrowed coronary arteries (the main blood vessels supplying the heart). The term “angioplasty” means using a balloon to stretch open a narrowed or blocked artery.