Essentia / Devices / Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Device Lab 7

Cardiopulmonary Bypass

The arterial pump is occlusive and positive displacement. Flow is whatever the rollers sweep, it does not change with what is downstream, and it will deliver air as readily as blood.

Also called: Heart-Lung Machine, Perfusion Pump. Arabic: جهاز القلب والرئة الاصطناعي. Device Lab 7 of 69 in BMEssentia Medical City, 2 configurations.

Overview: the configurations

How it works: the main parts

What each part does, from the Cardiopulmonary Bypass lessons in the 3D Device Lab.

Cannulae and patient lines

Four connections into one opening in a chest, and several metres of half-inch PVC back to a console at the patient’s side. This is the part of the machine that is inside a person, and it is the part that decides how much of everything else there has to be.

Venous drainage

A wide tube from the right atrium down to a reservoir, and nothing pulling on it. Blood arrives in this machine because the reservoir is lower than the patient and for no other reason.

Venous reservoir

A clear column on the mast with blood in the bottom of it. It is the buffer between what is coming back from the patient and what is being pumped out to them, and its level is the number watched more closely than any other on this machine.

Oxygenator and heat exchanger

A clear housing on the mast with blood going in dark at the bottom and coming out red at the top. It is the lung, and in the same shell there is a heat exchanger that sets the patient’s temperature.

Gas blender and sweep

A small panel with two flowmeters and a mount for a vaporiser. It decides two things that people constantly confuse: how much oxygen the blood gains, and how much carbon dioxide it loses.

Heater-cooler unit

A box on the floor beside the console with a water tank in it. It cools the patient at the start of the operation and warms them at the end, through water that never touches blood, and it is the one part of this machine with an infection story attached to it.

Arterial filter and bubble trap

A clear bowl on the arterial line, the last thing blood passes through before it reaches the aorta. It catches what everything upstream let past, and it has a purge line off the top so that what it catches can leave the circuit rather than sit in it.

Air bubble detector

A small clamp on the arterial line with an ultrasonic head each side of the tube. It listens for anything that is not blood and stops the pump when it hears it.

Common faults and what to check

Most reported device problems (FDA MAUDE)

Raw counts of adverse event reports for this device type (FDA product code DTQ, DWB, DTZ), all years. Not adjusted for the number of units in use, so they show what gets reported, not failure rates. Report text is never copied.

Planned maintenance checks

From the BMEssentia procedure library: every 6 months, about 180 minutes, electrical class I, applied part type CF.

Test instruments: Tachometer or the manufacturer's speed tool; Pressure reference; Thermometer reference; Electrical safety analyser.

Recent FDA recalls

From the FDA recall database (openFDA), newest first, imported 2026-10-22. 376 recalls on record for this device type. Recall text is the FDA's public text; each recall links to the official record.

Learn it, see it in 3D, ask about it

• Ask Essentia about the Cardiopulmonary Bypass: answers from named sources, with the device open in its 3D Device Lab beside the answer.
• The Cardiopulmonary Bypass on the BMEssentia Platform: the Device Library course, 13 sections from physics to maintenance.
• BMEssentia Medical City: Device Lab 7, the Cardiopulmonary Bypass fully assembled in 3D, with lab tasks and the simulations.

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