The Japanese guidelines for cardiopulmonary bypass and recommendations concerning safety devices for cardiopulmonary bypass

In March 2007, under the guidance of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, a committee released Japanese guidelines for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) with the purpose to standardize CPB hardware and software for patient's safety and education of medical personnel. In April 2007, the Japanese Society of Extra Corporeal Technology in Medicine (JaSECT) released recommendations concerning safety devices for cardiopulmonary bypass. An on-site training session for CPB troubles was held at the 38th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery in February 2008 as a measure to ensure safety of CPB. Young heart surgeons and perfusionists were taught the basic CPB operations, recovering procedures after an incident, and the use of safety devices. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the end of the training session. Eight heart surgeons and 7 perfusionists (3 certified and 4 without certification) participated in the session None of the 8 heart surgeons who participated had read the guidelines or made an effort to accomplish the recommendations. Of the 7 certified or uncertified perfusionists who participated, only one certified perfusionist made an effort to accomplish the recommendation. CPB accidents are rare, but as a medical team, tragedies such as death and life-threatening complication due to CPB accident should be prevented at all costs. We believe that the 1st step to prevent CPB incident is to read and understand the CPB guidelines thoroughly, and to accomplish the "required" items listed in the recommendations.