History

Attempts to develop a heart-lung machine date back as far as 1813 with an idea proposed by Le Gallois about what would constitute artificial circulation.[1] In the 1880s, Max von Frey and Max Gruber tested the first closed system for oxygenation and returning the blood through arteries in a canine model.[2],[3] Not until 1916, however, with the discovery of heparin by Howell and McLean, could the development of a heart-lung machine move forward.[4] In 1934, Dr. John Gibbon, considered the father of extracorporeal circulation, began constructing a machine to achieve blood oxygenation.[4] After more than 20 years of animal research and testing, and Dr. Gibbon’s collaboration with John Kirklin at the Mayo Clinic and C. Walton Lillehei at the University of Minnesota, the first successful use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was conducted in 1952.[5]