Hypothermia: its possible role in cardiac surgery

The current safety of operations on the heart requiring cardiopulmonary bypass occurred because of a series of step-by-step laboratory and clinical investigations that were compromises between the time needed for heart repair and the brain's requirement for oxygen. The first step, so clearly shown in a paper by Bigelow and associates in 1950, was the reduction of the brain's need for oxygen by surface cooling to 28 degrees to 32 degrees C, limited to this level by cardiac and pulmonary failure at levels lower than this. The six to eight minutes of circulatory arrest permitted time for repair of simple defects. This method was rapidly adopted by many surgeons. As low-flow pump oxygenators became available, blood cooling to 10 degrees to 20 degrees C was introduced. This increased the periods of circulatory arrest to 30 to 60 minutes, and also made still longer periods of bypass with the pump oxygenator possible. Hypothermia to reduce oxygen and metabolic requirements is still an important adjunct to bypass, even with the currently used efficient pump oxygenators. It remains the most important component of myocardial preservation, and has made possible the delay needed for transportation between the harvesting and the transplantation of organs.