Early Case Series Experience With a New Unique Portable Heart Lung Machine (EP Video)

Changes in body fluids during and after cardiopulmonary bypass are inevitable. The increase in total body weight shows that this fluid load shifts to the extracellular space during bypass and the fluid load in this area passes into the intravascular area in the early postoperative period.

These results suggest that detected intracardiac air represents residual "air," with carbon dioxide already absorbed. Therefore, the use of conventional de‐airing procedures needs reconsideration: air and buoyant bubbles should be removed from the heart before they are expelled into the aorta; this requires timely and precise assessment with transesophageal echocardiography and effective collaboration between surgeons, anesthesiologists, and perfusionists.

Considering the potential for perioperative patient safety measurements to improve patient outcomes, the absence of a generally accepted measurement standard and manifold barriers to reporting, a pragmatic approach to locally measuring patient safety appears advisable.