Development of cardiopulmonary bypass – A historical review

The idea of isolated organ perfusion, a precursor of cardiopulmonary bypass, came by Legalois in 1812. First isolated organ perfusion was described by Loebell in 1849. The first closed system for oxygenation and returning the blood through arteries was created by Frey and Gruber in 1885. Gibbon Jr. is considered the father of extracorporeal circulation. In spring of 1934 he began constructing a machine for extracorporeal circulation in Boston. He published the first description of this system in 1937. Gibbon won the grant of the International Business Machines Corporation for developing the machine in 1947. Together they developed Model I in 1949 and Model II in 1951. After a few unsuccessful attempts in 1952, the first successful surgical intervention on the heart (closure of atrial septal defect) using cardiopulmonary bypass was performed on May 6, 1953. In 1945, Kirklin and his working group reported on a series of eight successfully treated patients in a row who underwent surgery with extracorporeal circulation. First successful valve surgery under the direct vision was performed by Dodrill in 1952, using his “Michigan Heart” machine as a right heart bypass. Using cardiopulmonary bypass, cardiac surgeons can deal with the complex cardiac pathology and save millions of lives.