Miniaturized extracorporeal circulation (MECC) | Heart-Lung Machine

Miniaturized extracorporeal circulation (MECC)

This is a miniaturized version of the heartlung machine with fewer side effects.Since the use of HLM involves a number of risks, the researchers developed it further and tried to find a less invasive and less risky mechanism. By reducing the size of the device, the foreign body surface that comes into contact with the circulating blood was also minimized, thus reducing the risk of an immune response. The filling volume of the MECC system is only 500 ml (heartlung machine with blood depot : over 2000ml), which reduces the volume of red blood cells.

MECC systems are also smaller and more portable than heartlung machines, which are roughly the size of a desk. The MECC was primarily developed for coronary bypass surgery, as this is the majority of operations requiring extracorporeal support systems. The heparin coating of the device reduces the risk of blood clotting.

Heparin is a substance that dilutes blood and belongs to the class of active substances known as anticoagulants. In summary, the MECC is an advanced, miniaturized form of the heart-lung machine, which is mainly used in bypass surgery. Various risks have been reduced and the complication rate has been lowered.

History

The first use of the heart-lung machine was in 1937 by American surgeon John Gibbon. He succeeded in diverting the blood from the vena cava into an oxygenator and then returning the oxygen-rich blood to the patient. After many failures, he succeeded in an operation on a patient with an atrial septum defect on May 6, 1953.

For a period of 26 minutes the blood was passed through the heart-lung machine while Gibbon closed the hole between the two atrial chambers. His surgery is considered to be formative and pioneering for the entire field of cardiac surgery.