Charles Drew and the Origins of Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest

Convinced that the high risk of operation using the early heart-lung machines was due to a toxic effect of the oxygenators in use in the 1950s, Charles Drew of Westminster Hospital in London devised a circulatory support system in which the patient’s own lungs functioned as the oxygenator. With this support, body temperature was reduced to the point 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 attempted to record how this came to pass and to describe the qualities of this man that led him to be original and creative.