Heart-lung machine, Europe, 1950-1979

Made:
1950-1979 in Europe
Open heart surgery in the 1980s General view of oom set display Open heart surgery in the 1980s

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Open heart surgery in the 1980s General view of oom set display
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Open heart surgery in the 1980s
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Heart-lung machine consisting of 4 pumps on a mobile base, a telethermometer, oxygen and carbon dioxide flow systems and an elapsed time indicator

Operated by a specially trained technician, a heart-lung machine replaces the function of the heart and lungs during open heart surgery. A mechanical pump takes over from the heart, with blood taken from the body and pumped over a membrane to gain oxygen and rid it of carbon dioxide. Flow meters record the levels of the gases.

Heart-lung machines were first developed in the 1950s. Today, some surgeries are carried out while the heart is still beating. Here, the heart-lung machine is shown in a scene depicting an operating theatre from the 1980s.

Details

Category:
Surgery
Object Number:
1979-685
Materials:
plastic (unidentified), metal (unknown), steel (metal), bakelite and rubber (unidentified)
type:
heart-lung machine
credit:
British American Optical Co. (Berks)