DREW,CHARLES AND THE ORIGINS OF DEEP HYPOTHERMIC CIRCULATORY ARREST

Convinced that the high risk of operation using the early heart-lung m achines was due to a toxic effect of the oxygenators in use in the 195 0s, Charles Drew of Westminster Hospital in London devised a circulato ry support system in which the patient's own lungs functioned as the o xygenator. With this support, body temperature was reduced to the poin t where circulatory arrest could be tolerated for the time required to carry out the intracardiac operation. He used only this technique for the rest of his surgical career, a period of 22 years. We have attemp ted to record how this came to pass and to describe the qualities of t his man that led him to be original and creative. (C) 1997 by The Soci ety of Thoracic Surgeons.