Although it provides circulation and ventilation, the ECC is not a physiological system. It has five features that are the basis for pathological reactions.
- Heart and lungs are excluded from circulation
- Arterial flow is depulsed;
- Blood is in direct contact with air and foreign surfaces;
- Anticoagulation is profound;
- Temperature is altered.
These features have important clinical consequences: coagulopathy, inflammatory syndrome, embolisms, functional alterations of organs. In addition, the machine must ensure haemodynamics, circulating volume, gas exchange and homeothermy. These various physiopathological elements are the subject of this chapter.
CHASSOT PG, GRONCHI F, April 2008, last update, December 2019