Liver support system

A liver support device for conducting blood purification on a patient suffering from liver failure, comprising

• (a) a first hollow fiber membrane dialyzer comprising i) a first hollow fiber membrane and ii) a first filtrate space,
• wherein the first hollow fiber membrane dialyzer does not allow passage of an essential amount of albumin over a wall of the first hollow fiber membrane,
• wherein the first hollow fiber membrane dialyzer is perfused with the patient's blood, and
• wherein dialysate solution is passed in a continuous flow through the first filtrate space in a direction opposite to the blood flow within hollow fibers of the first hollow fiber membrane,
• (b) a second hollow fiber membrane dialyzer comprising i) a second hollow fiber membrane and ii) a second filtrate space,
• wherein the second hollow fiber membrane dialyzer allows passage of essential amounts of albumin over a wall of the second hollow fiber membrane, wherein the second filtrate space is closed off from a lumen space of the second hollow fiber membrane and is not perfused with any dialysis solution;
• and
• (c) a particulate material comprising at least one adsorbent,
• wherein the second filtrate space of the second hollow fiber membrane dialyzer is homogenously populated with the particulate material with a filling ratio of between 0.6 and 1.0, wherein the filling ratio is the volume in ml of the maximal amount of particulate material which can be accommodated in the filtrate space of a given hollow fiber membrane module (VPM) and the utilizable volume in ml of the filtrate space of said module (VFS):
• Filling
• ⁢
• ⁢
• ratio
• =
• V
• PM
• ⁡
• (
• ml
• )
• V
• FS
• ⁡
• (
• ml
• )
• wherein VPM represents the volume of the particulate material which can be accommodated in the filtrate space of the module, and VFS represents the utilizable filtrate space, and wherein VPM is calculated from
• V
• PM
• ⁡
• (
• ml
• )
• =
• m
• PM
• ⁡
• (
• g
• )
• ρ
• ⁡
• (
• g
• ⁢
• /
• ⁢
• ml
• )
• wherein mPM represents the amount of particulate material which can be accommodated in the filtrate space of the module and ρ represents the tapping density of the particulate material according to DIN ISO 3953.