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Heart-Lung Machine

Biomedical Engineering

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A heart-lung machine is a device that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery, pumping and oxygenating a patient's blood so that surgeons can operate on a stopped heart. American surgeon John Gibbon developed the machine over more than two decades of research and used it successfully in 1953 to repair a hole in a patient's heart, the first successful open-heart operation performed using cardiopulmonary bypass. The heart-lung machine made modern open-heart surgery possible and remains a standard piece of equipment in cardiac operating rooms.

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