Edited by
LINDA B. MONGERO
JAMES R. BECK

2008

Advanced Perfusion Techniques

With the introduction of cardiac surgery more than five decades ago, and the use of the heart-lung machine for open heart surgical procedures granting the surgeon unlimited time in which to operate inside the heart, a complex task has been given to the perfusionist. Initially, cardiopulmonary bypass was so deleterious to the patient, and knowledge of bypass was so limited, that the unknown was balanced mostly by trial and error.