Mechanical Pump Used in Open Heart Operation in 1952

In 1952, the first successful open heart operation with the aid of a mechanical pump was carried out by Dr. Forest Dodrill in a patient with pulmonary stenosis. The technique he employed--a mechanical pump and autogenous oxygenation--was the same that we had used earlier in the experimental laboratory. In 1953, Dr. John Gibbon performed the first successful intra cardiac operation using extracorporeal oxygenation. For a short time it was uncertain if there would be a place for autogenous biologic oxygenation in open heart operations, but as the commercial pump oxygenators improved, it soon became obvious that the latter was the method of choice. From the Yale Vascular History Powerpoint.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/surgeryimages/1176/thumbnail.jp