Perfusion Techniques that may Decrease Brain Injury During Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Brain injury and neuropsychiatric dysfunction occur too frequently in patients having cardiac surgery [1–5]. The incidence of neurologic and other complications [6] has steadily decreased over the years, but there are still reports of measurable brain injury or transient neurologic dysfunction in 50%–60% of these patients [7,8].The incidence of permanent dysfunction is about 7.5%–13% in valve and left ventricular aneurysm patients (open ventricle) [3,9] and 2%–4.4% in coronary artery bypass patients (ventricle not opened) [3,10]. The purpose of this chapter is to review the progress in cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) technology and perfusion practice that may have some impact upon the incidence of brain injury that occurs during cardiac surgery.