The heart-lung machine revolutionized open heart surgery. It was developed in Philadelphia
A groundbreaking medical invention used in a variety of life-saving heart operations was developed in Philadelphia: the heart-lung machine.
"This was the invention," Dr. Joseph Bavaria, head of cardiovascular surgery at Jefferson University Hospital, said. "The seminal invention that allowed open heart surgery to exist today for us, for all of us."
The first cardiopulmonary bypass machine from 1953 was developed in Philadelphia.
Bavaria says the machine allows doctors to temporarily stop the heart to repair it.
"It has the combination of the ability to do what the lung does as well as the heart," Bavaria said.
The heart-lung machine that has evolved over the years circulates and oxygenates blood during open-heart surgery.
Inventor Dr. John Gibbon, a surgeon at Jefferson, spent two decades working on the technology that would revolutionize heart surgery.
"This was a guy who started it all," Bavaria said. "And allowed us all to be able to do what we do today."
It's estimated that the heart-lung machine is now used in about a million heart surgeries a year worldwide.
"The heart-lung machine is what makes all cardiac surgery, all intracardiac cardiac surgery possible today in the world," Bavaria said.
In honor of Gibbon's legacy, Jefferson named the Gibbon Building in his memory for his innovation and patient care.
"This is an incredible seminal event in the history of medicine," Bavaria said, "and it all started right here in Philadelphia."
Over the past century, heart operations that once were unthinkable have become commonplace, thanks to the Philly invention that's saving lives.