Abstract
Recent developments in cardiac surgery have been followed by increases in the number of open-heart operations which require an artificial heart-lung machine. As a result, diluted blood in the extracorporeal circulation has been utilized because of the increasing requirements for fresh blood and in order to reduce side-effects. Since 1960. Neptune, Cooley, De Wall, Zuhdi, etc. reported the complete replacement of blood with blood substitutes, such as 5% glucose in distilled water, physiological saline solution or low-molecular weight dextran, to prime the circuit of the artificial heart-lung machine. Then improvements in and simplification of the oxygenator have been made. With this thought in mind, the authors have developed a simplified disposable oxygenator and have obtained good results in its clinical use. The details and indications for the utilization of this machine follow.
