Hypothermia

“The DeWall oxygenator’s output was lower than that of the heart, so patients were slowly being starved of oxygen while they were connected to the device, and surgeon s had only a little window of time in which to operate. Hypothermia offered a way of prolong it. . . Another new use for hypothermia was discovered by Norman Shumway . . . In 1959 he showed that cooling the heart locally with saline at 4 c made it safe to operate for as long as an hour. Topical or general hypothermia – or a combination of the two – eventually gained general acceptance and remain common techniques today” (Morris, loc 2016ff.).