Transcript Duties and Responsibilities of a Perfusionist

Duties and Responsibilities
of a Perfusionist
Brian Schwartz, CCP
September 2, 2003
Perfusion I
Primary Duty of a Perfusionist
Assuring the safety of the patient
undergoing surgery
 #1 hazard is the introduction of air
 “The ultimate and primary responsibility of
the cardiovascular perfusionist not to allow
the oxygenating device be emptied
thereby introducing air into the
cardiovascular system of the patient”

Primary Duty (cont)
Safety must be the overriding
consideration…regardless of any other
responsibilities
 The perfusionist is responsible for
maintaining sterility of the disposables,
monitoring, and protecting the heart and
lung machine from damage

Maintaining Adequate Blood Flow
Must be able to calculate adequate blood
flows
 Must maintain blood flow throughout
procedure
 Must be able to adjust flow according to
metabolic needs and hemodynamic
changes

Maintaining Adequate Blood
Pressure
Must maintain and regulate blood pressure
of patient according to your hospitals
policy and procedures
 Maintain open communication with all
members of the open-heart team

Maintaining Adequate Oxygenation
of Blood
Must consider each case individually and
choice the proper device to be used for
cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB)
 Must be able to adjust the device to
maintain

 Normal
Blood Gases
 Normal Base Excess
 Adequate Oxygenation
 Adequate Removal of Carbon Dioxide
Operation of Suction Pumps and
Vent System
With this responsibility one needs
complete communication with surgeons
 Suction Pumps

 Allow
surgeon to have better visualization of
surgical field

Vent System
 Help
with the evacuation of air in certain chambers
of the heart
 Helps to maintain the decompression of the heart
Maintaining Proper Blood
Temperatures
Maintaining proper temperature gradients
of blood
 Maintaining proper temperatures of the
following according to policy and
procedures

 Blood
 Organs
 Patient’s
Temperature
Maintaining All Relevant
Information

Information should include but not limited
to:
 Past
medical history
 Drug allergies
 Diagnosis
 Vital signs
 Results of blood gases
 Important times

Must be written neatly and precisely for
legal reason
Proper Maintenance of all
Equipment
Preventative Maintenance (PM’s) helps
reduce accidents
 Must keep records of all PM’s
 PM’s should be done every six months

Proper Standards of Practice

Standards may be:
 Hospital
Protocols
 Surgeons
 Regional
Protocol
or National Protocol
Perfusion Services

Perfusionist must be available to provide
their services to a patient
 Perfusionist
in-house
 Perfusionist on-call
 Perfusionist only 30 minutes away from hospital