The Department of Extracorporeal Circulation is one of the important divisions of the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The department is equipped with modern devices for providing bypass during surgical interventions, equipment for extracorporeal hemocorrection and long-term extracorporeal life support (ECMO). The specialists of the department have the highest level of training and annually provide more than 2000 surgical interventions and 800 extracorporeal procedures.

The main activities of the department are:

1. Ensuring bypass during cardiac surgery of any level of complexity in adults and children.

2. Extracorporeal methods of treatment in patients with systemic atherosclerosis, familial hypercholesterolemia (SGH), coronary heart disease (CHD), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) and other diseases of the cardiovascular system:

• Double Cascade plasma filtration
• Plasmapheresis
• Hemosorption
• Plasmosorption
• Hemoimmunoprecipitation
• Hemodialysis
• Hemodiafiltration
• Ultrafiltration
• Leukodiplication

3. Extracorporeal life support (ELS) in patients with severe cardiovascular and respiratory failure:

• Venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO [VV-ECMO])
• Venous-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO [VA-ECMO])
• Extracorporeal CO2 remove ([ECCO2R])
• Left ventricular device (LVD)

On the basis of the department there is a unique, the only in Ukraine Center for Extracorporeal Life Support (ECMO-center), which can accommodate up to 4 patients at a time. Since 2010, the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (formerly the Kyiv City Heart Center) has been a full member of the World Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO]). The results correspond to the indicators of the best clinics in the world (Michigan, Leicester, Melbourne).

The department has accumulated unique experience in performing surgical interventions in patients with chronic renal failure who are on systemic hemodialysis.

This is the first and only department in Ukraine that treats patients with systemic atherosclerosis, familial and hereditary hypercholesterolemia (SGH) and various disorders of lipid metabolism (including resistance to statin therapy) using the technique of cascade plasma filtration, which is one of the most highly selective and effective methods of rheopheresis. The department is equipped with modern devices for cascade plasma filtration Cobe Spectra and Cobe Optia.