What keeps you alive during heart operations like cabg?

Bypass machine: The majority of CABG operations are done with cardiopulmonary bypass assistance. This is a machine that drains blood out of the body, cools it, oxygenates it and then returns via a pump to the body to circulate it throughout the body while the heart is stopped and being operated on.

Heart lung machine: There are two common ways to perform bypass surgery. Beating heart surgery can be done without stopping the heart by using stabilizers. The patients heart supports the patient. The heart lung machine allows the heart to be stopped so surgery can be performed in or on a motionless heart without blood interfering.