The Annals of thoracic surgery
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To evaluate the use of portable cardiopulmonary bypass as a resuscitative tool and its impact on long-term survival of patients in cardiac arrest, we reviewed the results of 32 consecutive patients resuscitated by cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac arrest or severe hemodynamic compromise at Northwestern Memorial Hospital over a 2-year period. Overall survival was 12.5%. ⋯ Our study suggests that portable cardiopulmonary support systems used as a resuscitative tool do not prolong the survival of most cardiac arrest patients but may be useful for patients with shock due to mechanical causes and for those with profound hemodynamic compromise due to ischemia or myocardial infarction. Portable heart-lung machines can provide patients with excellent hemodynamic support; however, neurological or cardiac recovery is unlikely once cardiac arrest occurs.
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Historical Article
A practical mechanical respirator, 1929: the "iron lung".
No satisfactory mechanical respirator existed before 1929, when Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw described an apparatus of their own design. This machine was in the form of a cylindrical tank enclosing the patient's body and chest, leaving the head outside the chamber under atmospheric pressure. Air pumps, later a bellows, raised and lowered pressure within the tank to assume the entire work of breathing. ⋯ It was being superseded by positive-pressure airway ventilators just as the polio era came to a close. Today the Drinker respirator has disappeared virtually without a trace. Although its disadvantage was its cumbersome size, we must concede that it supported patients over the long term with fewer complications than do the respirators of today.