In Belgium, the profession of perfusionist is restricted to nurses with a Bachelor's degree. Other than this, there still is no legal recognition regarding the job of a perfusionist.
BelSECT keeps striving for the legal recognition of this wonderful profession.
A perfusionist is a specialized healthcare professional responsible for operating the heart-lung machine and other advanced equipment used during surgical procedures that require the heart to be temporarily stopped, such as open-heart surgery. Perfusionists play a critical role in maintaining a patient's circulatory and respiratory functions while the surgeon operates on the heart or other thoracic structures.
Next to operating the heart-lung machine in the operating theatre, a perfusionist in Belgium is frequently involved in supporting other medical specialists. An overview:
| Operating the heart-lung machine |
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| From Neonates to Octogenarians |
| Monitoring and Adjusting |
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| Administration of medication |
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| Blood Management |
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| Set up and support Advanced Life Support Systems |
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| Isolated Oncological Perfusion |
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| Dynamic Organ Perfusion & Preservation in the field of Organ Donation |
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Promotional video created by BelSECT in 2015 to promote the profession of perfusionist. Thanks to all participating perfusionists, surgeons, anesthesiologists and students for the kind collaboration!
