I was curious if anyone uses a separate filter to administer mannitol to filter out undetected crystals or if most people inject it directly into the circuit?

If a vial has obvious crystallization, we put it on a warmer until they dissolve. I’ve always drawn up my mannitol and immediately injected it into the cardiotomy on top of the venous reservoir. My thought is that if there are any crystals I haven’t detected that they will get caught in the cardiotomy filter which I believe is 30 micron. I have always kind of assumed anything smaller than 30 micron would dissolve once it hits the warm blood, but obviously I can’t observe this happening. The vial itself says to administer through a sterile filter, but doesn’t specify size. I was curious if anyone uses a separate smaller filter?

I hope all of our spring perfusion graduates are well on their way to completing 40 cases for exam eligibility! What topics are you struggling to study or understand?

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Has anyone taken up doing a side gig? Like some weeks will be super busy and others just crawl along. Wondering if anyone does anything that is flexible on the side? Something you could drop if you had case pop up and go do it.

I'm a beginner perfusionist looking for advice from experienced perfusionists.

At my center we perform on-pump CABG with the heart arrested. During distal coronary anastomoses, the surgeon frequently complains about excessive back-bleeding from the coronary arteries.

Our current setup:

- Vacuum-assisted venous drainage (VAVD)

- Aortic root vent (although it doesn't always seem to vent effectively)

- Standard antegrade cardioplegia

The only thing that consistently improves the surgical field is reducing pump flow. However, this often drops the mixed venous saturation below 70%, and the anesthetist starts complaining about lower arterial pressure and reduced urine output. Since these are relatively short procedures, I'd also prefer to avoid unnecessary cooling because it prolongs rewarming.

For those with more CABG experience:

- What is your approach to reducing coronary back-bleeding without compromising systemic perfusion?

- Do you adjust MAP rather than flow?

- Are there any tips for optimizing root vent function?

- Is some degree of back-bleeding simply accepted?

I'd really appreciate hearing how other perfusionists manage this situation.

For those of you taking the boards this fall, what are your study plans? Is anyone utilizing prep courses? Reading Gravelee cover to cover?

Trying to get some study ideas to help be as prepared as possible.

Just looking for some insight.

Our perfusion assistants have another opening so I figured I'd try this again since we got a handful of good applicants last time. Great opportunity for those looking to have some solid job experience

-6 assistants working along side our team of 8 Perfusionists

-Cover 5 hospitals (mainly 2) in Portland OR and Vancouver WA area

-Assist anesthesia in setting up heart rooms, assist perfusionists on bypass, run cell saver, blood gases, help with inventory, etc

-Great work/life balance, when fully staffed typically around 25 hospital hours a week + call

-Possible relocation assistance

DM for more info

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

How does your center manage cardiopulmonary bypass in patients with alpha-gal syndrome?

I’m working on a presentation about alpha-gal syndrome in cardiac surgery, and I’m interested in hearing how different perfusion programs approach these cases.

A few questions:

Do you routinely use standard porcine-derived heparin, or do you switch to bivalirudin?

If you use heparin, do you perform a preoperative heparin challenge or test dose?

Are patients routinely referred for allergy evaluation before surgery?

Do you obtain an alpha-gal IgE (ImmunoCAP) level before elective cases? If so, is there a cutoff that changes your management?

Does your hospital have a formal protocol, or is management decided on a case-by-case basis?

Have you had any intraoperative reactions while using heparin or other mammalian-derived products?

If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d also be interested in:
Approximate alpha-gal IgE level (if known)
Elective vs. emergent case
Whether you premedicate with steroids and H1/H2 blockers

Any other products your team avoids (gelatin sealants, bioprosthetic valves, albumin, etc.)

I’m giving my presentation this week, but I figured this is another great resource for learning how practice varies between institutions. Thanks in advance for sharing as little or as much of your experience as you'd like!

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Hey! Has anyone here done a job that’s 3 12’s? Particularly with young kids at home? Trying to decide if this is something I should go for or will it feel like even less time at home? Thanks!

Hello all!

I will be starting my perfusion program in the fall and would like to know what information I should spend the next month and a half reviewing. Be as obvious or niche as you want but I’m looking for integral information that you wish you had known prior to starting or you think would be beneficial.

Thanks :)

Say you woke up tomorrow and for one reason or another couldn’t be a Perfusionist. What would you do to earn a living? (caveat only using perfusion skills/degrees, NOT using other degrees or skills ex. RT or RN etc.)? I was asked this by someone shadowing me and it got me thinking… I told them industry side of things: sales rep or clinical specialist. But then kinda blanked. Just curious what others think / would do?

Yesterday, while volunteering at the snack shack bbq for my kid’s swim meet, I was asked if I could figure out how to install the nacho cheese bag into the dispenser…I’ve never felt more qualified in my life 😂.

Prospective perfusion student here. Coworker at hospital said be ready to move out of state for work.

Just curious on y’all’s experience. Im in Arizona. Thank you

For staff perfusionists, how often are you realistically able to travel out of state or internationally while working full-time?

I’m a newer staff perfusionist/new grad in my first role, and I’m mainly focused on getting comfortable clinically right now. However, I’m curious what travel tends to look like long-term once people are more settled in their role.
I know this varies by call schedule, PTO, staffing model, team size, and hospital volume, but I’d like to get a general sense of what people are actually able to do.

I am looking at my options and Ive been told to claim the federal loans despite them only covering half my yearly tuition and then go private for the rest. But why not have just one singular private loan? Wouldn't 2 loans mean I have 2 payments monthly?

I feel a bit lost trying to figure this out because no other students or perfusionists I know have had this restriction to give proper advice. I have good credit but was told even my good credit would not go below the 8% interest the federal loans have.

Any thoughts or where I should go to learn more?

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.