[The principles of minimal extracorporeal circulation and its uses]

The recently introduced minimal extracorporeal circulation system is a remarkable alternative to the conventional heart-lung machine in several cardiosurgical indications. It consists of a centrifugal pump, an oxygenator, a tip-to-tip heparin coated line set and a modified cell saver application. Due to its closed blood-air interaction-free construction and reduced priming volume, the unfavourable effects of perfusion as haemodilution, inflammatory response, locoregional malperfusion, transfusion needs, can be effectively reduced. Our short summary demonstrates the advantages and safety of the system proven over 2000 cases. The potential applications are aortocoronary bypass operations with or without arrest, left heart bypass at thoracal aneurysms, "bridge to recovery" in heart failure or subsequent to reanimation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and many more.