Job Security for Cardiac Perfusionists?

A study released this week and reported in the New York Times suggests that "off-pump" heart surgery is no better for a patient than "on-pump" surgery, which entails stopping the heart, and diverting the patient's blood through a heart-lung machine during the surgery.

Prior to this study, the general opinion in the medical community is that the "beating heart" surgery is superior to the "on-pump" surgery. It was thought that there were fewer complications involved in beating heart surgery, although it's challenging for the surgeon to operate on a beating heart.

The study analyzed more than 2,000 heart surgeries to determine the effectiveness of the two different types of surgeries, as well as the effect on the patients. The outcomes, complication rate, and recovery and survival rates for patients who underwent both types of surgeries were found to be nearly identical, according to the study.

This should be good news to clinical cardiac perfusionists, medical professionals who run the heart-lung machines. About 80% of all heart surgeries are completed with the assistance of a heart-lung machine currently according to the NYT report. Had the study found more favorable results for off-pump surgeries, perfusionists may have found their case volume decrease in the future, as doctors and patients would push for what was thought to be the safer, off-pump method.

However, conventional thinking about heart surgery has been somewhat reversed, and the majority of heart surgeries will most likely continue to need a cardiac perfusionist present to run the heart-lung machine. In fact, some surgeons have indicated that they may now increase their percentage of on-pump surgeries.

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