Classic Pages of the Journal of ExtraCorporeal Technology Pump Sucker Discipline

In 1988, Malinauskas and coworkers lamented that despite three decades of improvement to cardiopulmonary bypass components, the cardiotomy suction system remained essentially unchanged (1). Now, nearly two and a half decades after this classic article was published, the cardiotomy suction system still essentially remains unchanged. We are hardpressed to find publications or inventions improving on the autotransfusion subsystem of the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) apparatus. There are publications recommending not using cardiotomy suction duringCPB. When you search “cardiopulmonary bypass cardiotomy suction” in PubMed.gov, 89 citations are returned. The same key words submitted to Google return 42,000 results. Searching the term “cardiotomy suction” in the Journal of ExtraCorporeal Technology search tool yields two articles. In addition to Malinauskas et al., Kinard, Shackelford, and Sistino reported reduction in circulating fat emboli in an in vitro model when cardiotomy blood is allowed to sit and the bottom 100 mL of reservoir blood is discarded (2). Not surprisingly, Kinard (senior student in 2009) and his faculty coauthors hail from theMedicalUniversity of SouthCarolina (MUSC). The perfusion faculty at MUSC have a working knowledge of the perfusion literature and the history of perfusion publications (3).