1828
The first perfusion experiment took place by James Phillips Kay, where he observed muscle contractions in a rabbit by injecting arterial blood into its abdominal aorta after withdrawing it from the carotid arteries.
1855
Max von Frey and Max Gruber created a closed-circuit system for perfusion.
1882
A scientist named Waldemar von Schroder developed bubble oxygenation when he directly introduced blood to an air current.
1934
John Gibbon began building a Heart lung machine.
1935
Charles Lindbergh and Alex Carrel ran a successful experiment on an isolated animal organ with their brand-new perfusion pump.
1949
Gibbon and IBM engineers developed Model 1 of the heart lung machine.
1951
Gibbon and IBM engineers developed Model 2 of the heart lung machine.
1953
First successful open-heart surgery was performed using a heart lung machine by John Gibbon on 5 May on an 18-year-old with an ASD.
1953
Gibbon created an oxygenator that used stainless steel sheets for the blood to flow over into a thin coating of a film where it was exposed to oxygen. These films were reusable so they were cleaned and sterilized at the end of every operation.
1954 and 1955
Used a patient’s parent as a heart lung machine on 20 April 1954 on a 3-year-old boy by Walton Lillehei. The father was the donor — the donor circulatory system.
1967
The world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant was performed at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 3, 1967, by Dr. Christiaan Barnard. The recipient was 53-year-old Louis Washkansky, and the donor was 25-year-old Denise Darvall.
1970’s
Walton Lillehei and Richard De Wall created a bubble oxygenator that became the standard practice.
1976
A membrane oxygenator was developed.
1990’s
A membrane oxygenator had replaced the bubble oxygenator.