Extracorporeal circulation for an infant has certain limitations because of immature grownth of the internal organs. Precise control of blood perfusion (arterial infusion and venous withdrawal) is required. This paper describes an advanced cardiopulmonary bypass system for an infant use, whose feature is an automatic control of blood perfusion with pulsatile arterial infusion. Blood perfusion is completely under computer control throughout the bypass to maintain the blood reservoir level as well as CVP at the desired stage. Another special feature is an assisted circulation where the arterial infusion is synchronized with variable assisted ratio to give diastolic augumentation at the weaning stage. The results on the dog experiments indicate that this computer controlled blood perfusion system can produce consistently satisfactory cardiopulmonary bypass.
