Introduction and history of postoperative care for adult cardiac surgical patients

Abstract

There is about seven decades that cardiac surgery began to take shape as we know it. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is one of the most important advances in medicine and essential milestone of cardiac surgery to maintain tissue oxygenation, myocardial protection, and systemic circulation during cardioplegic cardiac arrest with suspension of ventilatory support. During this period, both CPB machine and protocols have been changed frequently. Despite the steady progress in CPB techniques, it is not a perfect model, and optimal design to reduce its complication is a great challenge. The concept of critical care unit was first introduced in the late 1950s for life-threatened patients. The progressive technologic advances let the care units as multidisciplinary organization with continuous bedside rather than remote monitoring for old patients with multiple comorbidities who should tolerate the deleterious effects of CPB too.