Cardiopulmonary bypass
technique that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery
Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) or heart-lung machine, also called the pump or CPB pump, is a machine, operated by a cardiac perfusionist, that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during open-heart surgery by maintaining the circulation of blood and oxygen throughout the body. As such it is an extracorporeal device.
The machine mechanically circulates and oxygenates blood throughout the patient's body while bypassing the heart and lungs allowing the surgeon to work in a bloodless surgical field.
Uses
CPB is commonly used in operations or surgical procedures involving the heart. The technique allows the surgical team to oxygenate and circulate the patient's blood, thus allowing the surgeon to operate safely on the heart. In many operations, such as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the heart is arrested, due to the degree of the difficulty of operating on a beating heart.
Operations requiring the opening of the chambers of the heart, for example mitral valve repair or replacement, require the use of CPB. This is to avoid engulfing air systemically, and to provide a bloodless field to increase visibility for the surgeon. The machine pumps the blood by using an oxygenator, allowing red blood cells to pick up oxygen, as well as allowing carbon dioxide levels to decrease. This mimics the function of the heart and the lungs, respectively.
Hypothermia
CPB can be used for the induction of total body hypothermia, a state in which the body can be maintained for up to 45 minutes without perfusion (blood flow).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cardiopulmonary bypass” as technique that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q552304. The Library of Congress control number is sh85020219. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cardiopulmonary bypass” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.