Cardiac pump

From ArticleWorld


A cardiac pump (more commonly referred to as cardiac bypass pump or heart-lung machine) is a machine that temporarily takes the role of the heart and the lungs during medical procedures.

Usage

the cardiac pump is commonly used in heart surgery, because operating on a beating heart is very difficult or even impossible at times. They are also used to induce a patient in hypothermia. If the heart stopped at a normal body temperature, death and brain damage would follow shortly. Another common use for cardiac pumps is to keep alive babies who have severe birth defects, or to continuously aerate bodies that contain organs which will be used in transplants.

The most common surgeries where a cardiac pump is used include:

  • Cardiac valve repair or replacement, for the aortic valve, the mitral valve, tricuspid valve and the pulmonic valve.
  • The repair of severe septal defects (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect or atrioventricular septal defect)
  • The repair or palliation of a congenital heart defect like the transposition of the great vessels or the tetralogy of Fallot.
  • Transplantation of heart and/or lungs
  • Coronary artery bypass operations
  • Pulmonary thromboendartectomy or thrombectomy