Extracorporeal Circulation in Cardiac Surgery: Inflammatory response, controversies and Future Directions

One of the milestones in the history of the cardiac surgery is the development of extracorporeal circulation, which allowed hundreds of thousands of patients under successful open cardiac surgery. It´s objective is to maintain the vital organ´s perfusion, provide a bloodless field for surgery, and at the same time, give protection to the heart and lungs. Its principle is to bring most or all of the patient’s systemic blood, which normally returns to the right atrium, into an oxygenator in which oxygen is supplied to the blood and carbon dioxide is removed. The arterialized blood is filtered, heated and, pumped into the aorta and the systemic arterial system. But this continuous blood recirculation through nonendothelial surfaces of the perfusion system produces an inflammatory response. Despite all the advantages and strategies developed to try to make the most physiological condition during the extracorporeal circulation, there are still persistent controversies, which we are going to review, as well as the inflammatory response produced by the perfusion system, and it´s future directions.