Acute respiratory failure is one of the critical conditions with an increased mortality. In order to reverse lung injury and reduce the mortality rate, several lung replacement therapies have been developed, including the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, the intravascular oxygenator and carbon dioxide removal device, the intravenous membrane oxygenator and the thoracic artificial lung. This...

Miniaturizing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuits to reduce hemodilution and allogenic blood product administration is common in cardiac surgery. One major concern associated with smaller CPB circuits is a possible increase in gaseous microemboli (GME) sent to the cerebral vasculature, which is exacerbated by vacuum-assisted venous drainage (VAVD). The use of VAVD has increased with smaller v...

Foaming and spill-out from the drive end of the rotating stainless steel cylinder oxygenator has been a serious problem, but sure remedies for both defects have been discovered. Oxygenation has always been 85 to 100% even with flow rates over 6 litres/minute. The machine was passed as safe for clinical use after test runs had been made on dogs in 1959, at which time the cause of oxygenator fail...

Currently in United States, there are no clinically-applicable hollow fiber extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) oxygenators available. Therefore, our laboratory is in the process of developing a silicone hollow fiber membrane oxygenator for long-term ECMO usage. This oxygenator incorporates an ultrathin silicone hollow fiber. At this time, a specially-modified blood flow distributor (one...

Hemolysis is a well-known phenomenon during cardiovascular surgery and generally attributed to cardiopulmonary bypass, particularly when using high-resistant oxygenators. This study aimed at investigating whether transoxygenator pressure drop can be considered an independent factor of hemolysis. Additionally, intraoxygenator blood distribution and shear stress were assessed. A low-resistant (LR...

Gaseous microemboli (GME) are an abnormal physiological occurrence during cardiopulmonary bypass and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Several studies have correlated negative sequelae with exposure to increased amounts of GME. Hypobaric oxygenation is effective at eliminating GME in hollow-fiber microporous membrane oxygenators. However, hollow-fiber diffusion membrane oxygenators, w...

Knowledge and predictability of oxygenator performance is vital to safe and effective conduct of cardiopulmonary bypass. The determination of oxygenator performance in the laboratory, however, is carried out under a strict set of conditions established by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). This performance data is of limited value in the clinical setting wher...

This study was carried out to clarify the effect of a high gradient magnetic field on pressure characteristics of blood in a hollow fiber membrane oxygenator in a solenoid coil by means of numerical analysis. Deoxygenated erythrocytes are paramagnetic, and oxygenated erythrocytes are diamagnetic. Blood changes its magnetic susceptibility depending on whether it is carrying oxygen or not. Motion...

A redesigned hollow fiber bundle was incorporated into an existing oxygenator that underwent clinical trials at seven cardiovascular surgery centers. Clinical investigators were asked to assess gas transfer performance under clinical conditions that could be considered challenging to any microporous membrane oxygenator, i.e., with large body weight patients, long bypass times, or normothermic ...