Management of cardiopulmonary bypass

The driver for the development of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was the desire to operate on a still heart in a blood-free surgical field. The concept was first applied in the animal laboratory by Gibbon in 1935. Research continued until the first clinical application of CPB by Dennis in 1951, in which the patient died owing to surgical complications. In 1953, Gibbon successfully closed an atrial septal defect, using his design of heart–lung machine, and triggered the evolution of present-day cardiac surgery.