How are patients kept alive between the time the damaged heart is removed and when it is replaced with a healthier one?
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Bypass machines.
The blood is pumped out of the body, through the machine where it’s warmed and oxygenated, and then pumped back into the body.
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the transplant procedure doesnt actually require you to remove the original heart until you can work on reconnecting the new one.
in this gap you have bypass machines that emulate the functions of the heart..not enough to function properly, but enuh to ensure the patient doesnt get starved of bloodflow.
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a cardiopulmonary bypass machine is used. The blood vessels out of the heart and returning to the heart are cannulated with tubes that divert blood into the CPBM where it is warmed, oxygenated and prevented from clotting before being pumped back into the patients circulation. The CPBM mimics /replaces the function of the heart and lungs while the patient is connected to it.
A Perfusionist, a medical specialty, is responsible for the operation of the machine. Including continued operation in a power failure.
The aorta is the biggest arterial vessel pumping out of the heart and the vena cava is the biggest vessel into the heart and they’re both cannulated and blood is drained into a reservoir from the vena cava that is pumped through an oxygenator which exchanges gas like your lungs do, which gets pumped to the aorta and out to the body. Basically we bypass the heart and lungs so that the body gets gas exchange which keeps it alive until the native body can exchange gas and blood flow on its own.
Edit: I’m a perfusionist. I run the pump that exchanges gas while the native heart and lungs can’t. It’s a very specialized field. Only a few thousand people in America do it.
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