A mechanical device for oxygenating blood outside the human body, essentially functioning as an artificial lung, is taking a leap forward fifty years after its debut. The original device in clinical use, called ECMO, which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, has been reimagined by bioengineers at Draper who took their cues from the way the human body oxygenates blood in the branching circulatory system.
The results, published in the journal Advanced Science, demonstrate a new configuration of an ECMO device that delivers oxygen and removes carbon dioxide in blood that travels through branching microchannels. The study, by researchers at Draper and The Autonomous Reanimation and Evacuation (AREVA) research program and innovation institute of the Geneva Foundation, is a “key step toward translation of this technology to the clinic for treatment of a range of lung diseases,” said Jeff Borenstein, Ph.D., a laboratory fellow at Draper. Critical care patients such as premature infants, transplant and pneumonia patients and others suffering respiratory failure and related conditions may benefit, he added.
ECMO technology was developed in the late 1960s, and its main purpose was to serve as a temporary bypass machine to support gas exchange for patients undergoing heart surgery. The central functional unit of current ECMO systems are a hollow fiber membrane oxygenator (HFMO), a device designed to add oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the blood by passing it over a fiber bundle in a specially designed container. Since its inception, the safety and availability of ECMO has been limited by the complexity of the blood circuit, hemocompatibility of the oxygenator and circuit components and complications such as clotting, bleeding and inflammatory responses.
While only the largest and most specialized medical centers currently offer ECMO, the demand for ECMO spiked during the pandemic, since the conventional means for respiratory support— mechanical ventilation—resulted in poor patient outcomes and high mortality. A safer and simpler-to-use device could bring the life-saving power of heart and lung bypass to civilian patients when ICU beds are limited—and to military casualties on the battlefield. However, current ECMO based on HFMO technology requires a large team of highly specialized personnel to administer the treatment and deal with frequent complications.
SOURCE: PRWeb