Heat exchanger for artificial heart and lung devices

A heat exchanger for use in artificial heart and lung devices, comprising a tubular shell having an inlet side and an outlet side for a heating medium;

• a plurality of elongated tubes arranged in parallel axially within said tubular shell;
• a pair of fixing plates locates at both ends of the tubular shell;
• a first cap secured to the inlet side of said tubular shell having an inlet port for blood;
• a second cap secured to the outlet side of said tubular shell having an outlet port for blood and air bubble remover means, said air bubble remover means being positioned vertically above said outlet port and downstream thereof relative to the direction of the flow of blood;
• and an annular baffle means secured within said second cap to divide the inside of said second cap into an inner chamber and an outer chamber, said blood outlet port communicating with said outer chamber and said air bubble remover means communicating with said inner chamber, wherein said annular baffle means accumulates the blood once in the inner chamber so as to remove air bubbles therefrom through the air bubble remover means and then allows the blood to flow into the outer chamber and subsequently to flow out through the outlet port.