Good day, so I was curious about this after watching a heart transplant surgery. Normally speaking, the cardiovascular system can be considered as a closed loop system where fluids that leak out don’t introduce air bubbles into the blood stream. However, when transplanting an organ, say a heart, from a donor to a recipient, there are multiple instances where there might be a risk of introducing air bubbles to the blood stream either when being connected to an artificial blood pump or sewing the new organ in.
My question is, how is it that they manage to remove air bubbles from a patients blood stream after completing a heart transplant?
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When putting a patient on cardiac bypass, the bypass machine hoses initially are filled with saline. Major vessels are clamped. The heart is submerged with saline. Vessels are separated one at a time, then canulas are inserted, all while submerged in saline.
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