Obviously requiring a heart to transport blood throughout the body and brain, is a pump or something used as a submission for that?
In: 5
They’re put on a bypass machine that is, in effect, a big mechanical heart. It connects to the veins and arteries that connect to the heart itself, so it just has to pump enough to keep the body alive.
And for breathing they’re on a respirator.
So yeah, the machines basically just take over the cardiopulmonary duties of the body durin the surgery.
just to clarify the other answer, the bypass machine takes over the pumping of blood, but also takes over the oxygenation from the lungs. While the patient *is* on a ventilator, this won’t do anything while the bypass machine is on (it literally “bypasses” the heart and lungs). The ventilator is used for the parts of the operation before and after the patient goes on the bypass machine
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