[A method of removing air from the cavities of the heart and great vessels during surgery with extracorporeal circulation].

A strictly successive method for removing air from the heart cavities and great vessels after the intracardiac stage of the operation was elaborated from study of the experience of foreign heart surgeons and experience in the use of various measures for the control of air embolism at the Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery, AMS USSR. The techniques of puncture of the heart cavities and vessels and their massage for complete evacuation of the air is described. These manipulations are combined with thorough decompression of the atria and ventricles to relieve the load suffered by them after cardioplegia. The author applied the described method in 647 patients who underwent operation for congenital, rheumatic, and other heart diseases. Signs of air embolism were not revealed in the postoperative period in these patients.