How Does A Heart Lung Machine Work?
When it comes to a heart lung machine, anyone can benefit from it - young or old. This is a piece of medical equipment that helps give support back to your circulatory system as well has uses for cardiopulmonary purposes. The device itself has various tubes including the venous cannula, reservoir that is responsible for holding blood, a silicone tube, bubbler, arterial line filter, electrolyte analyzer and a variety of monitoring tools for pressure. Ultimately, though this device is comprised of various tubes and features, it has one main benefit; it adds H20 to your blood via your heart and then pumps it back into your body. One of the main uses for this specialized device is coronary artery bypass surgery, but it does have other uses.
Main Purposes
As mentioned above, this device can help aid in coronary artery bypass surgery, but it can also help remove carbon monoxide from your blood, pump it out, and add in oxygen. People get carbon monoxide in their blood stream for all sorts of reasons, but some of them include; smoke inhalation, faulty devices, gas powered tools, motor vehicles and exhaust pipes and nonvented devices such as propane heaters and grills can all cause some sort of exposure to carbon monoxide. This device can also help with certain procedures and treatments for a patient such as aortic aneurysm repairs, bypass grafting, heart transplants and so much more. Its definitely one of the most helpful devices designed and invented in the past 88 years.
Side Effects of Heart Lung Machine
No machine is a miracle worker, every single machine or device in the medical field has the ability to have adverse effects, no matter what regulation of medical devices in the US it has. Thankfully though, the heart lung machine has a small percentage of "issues" when it comes to things like clotting. But, you should still be aware of these issues when it comes time for certain surgical procedures and treatments. Make sure you talk to your doctor about things like Post perfusion syndrome, Air embolism, Capillary leak syndrome and leakage. In order for doctors and surgeons to try and give you the best care possible, there ARE a few guidelines that they do follow; the device is only used during the time a cardiac surgery may take rather than the whole surgery, this usually includes up to 6 hours which is the manufactures recommendation. If you are one of the few people that has the device used on you for up to 10 hours, don't worry just yet, surgeons do take care to make sure everything in the device functions correctly and is doing what it’s supposed to be doing.
Who Is Responsible?
If you are going through a procedure like open heart surgery and you are doing your own research, you’re probably reading this article with certain questions in mind, such as who is responsible for the machine. To be frank, everyone is, but to be a little more detailed the ECMO specialist - a person that has been trained, gone to school and earned a degree in this specialty, will be the one who monitors your device. These people will monitor the controls the whole time, but you might find comfort that the ECMO specialist is not on their own, actually they have to do continuous scanning of the device, the monitors as well as the device and check in with documentation every 15-30 minutes. The information obtained in the check in is then given to doctors and nurses to not only deal with any issues going on at the time of the procedure, but this data also gives them a better idea of how to manage the patient after the procedure. As one would expect, this device does have compliances that the ECMO has to and does follow. If all goes well, as it should be, you should be given a treatment plan after the surgery once you get home.
Main Purposes
As mentioned above, this device can help aid in coronary artery bypass surgery, but it can also help remove carbon monoxide from your blood, pump it out, and add in oxygen. People get carbon monoxide in their blood stream for all sorts of reasons, but some of them include; smoke inhalation, faulty devices, gas powered tools, motor vehicles and exhaust pipes and nonvented devices such as propane heaters and grills can all cause some sort of exposure to carbon monoxide. This device can also help with certain procedures and treatments for a patient such as aortic aneurysm repairs, bypass grafting, heart transplants and so much more. Its definitely one of the most helpful devices designed and invented in the past 88 years.
Side Effects of Heart Lung Machine
No machine is a miracle worker, every single machine or device in the medical field has the ability to have adverse effects, no matter what regulation of medical devices in the US it has. Thankfully though, the heart lung machine has a small percentage of "issues" when it comes to things like clotting. But, you should still be aware of these issues when it comes time for certain surgical procedures and treatments. Make sure you talk to your doctor about things like Post perfusion syndrome, Air embolism, Capillary leak syndrome and leakage. In order for doctors and surgeons to try and give you the best care possible, there ARE a few guidelines that they do follow; the device is only used during the time a cardiac surgery may take rather than the whole surgery, this usually includes up to 6 hours which is the manufactures recommendation. If you are one of the few people that has the device used on you for up to 10 hours, don't worry just yet, surgeons do take care to make sure everything in the device functions correctly and is doing what it’s supposed to be doing.
Who Is Responsible?
If you are going through a procedure like open heart surgery and you are doing your own research, you’re probably reading this article with certain questions in mind, such as who is responsible for the machine. To be frank, everyone is, but to be a little more detailed the ECMO specialist - a person that has been trained, gone to school and earned a degree in this specialty, will be the one who monitors your device. These people will monitor the controls the whole time, but you might find comfort that the ECMO specialist is not on their own, actually they have to do continuous scanning of the device, the monitors as well as the device and check in with documentation every 15-30 minutes. The information obtained in the check in is then given to doctors and nurses to not only deal with any issues going on at the time of the procedure, but this data also gives them a better idea of how to manage the patient after the procedure. As one would expect, this device does have compliances that the ECMO has to and does follow. If all goes well, as it should be, you should be given a treatment plan after the surgery once you get home.