Cardiac operations with extracorporeal circulation

In a series of 50 patients for whom a heart-lung machine was used for periods as long as 70 minutes during operations to correct structural defects of the heart, there were no deaths attributable to the machine. Seven patients died. Two of them had high pressure ventricular septal defects with bidirectional shunts; a third patient with the same lesion recovered after repair. One patient died of cardiac tamponade when a large blood clot formed about the entire heart in a loosely closed pericardial sac. Others died of various causes. The development of subacute bacterial endocarditis in one patient led to a change in sterilization of apparatus.