Integrated membrane oxygenator, heat exchanger and reservoir
AssigneeBaxter Travenol Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsRichard L. Bringham, Lucas S. Gordon, Karl E. Mosch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A membrane oxygenator includes an upper nested arrangement of a hard shell venous reservoir, a bowl-like defoamer within the reservoir and a heat exchanger coil vertically supported within the defoamer, and includes a membrane oxygenator unit mounted on the bottom of the upper arrangement. The oxygenator unit includes an inlet chamber with a tangential inlet providing swirling blood flow to dislodge air bubbles and centrifuge air to an upper center region of an inlet chamber where gas is exhausted through a vent. A bottom blood outlet chamber of the blood oxygenator unit has a relatively thin vertical cross-sectional area such that priming flow velocity therein discharges all air from the outlet chamber.
Claims6
A blood oxygenator comprising
- an upper bowl-like housing having a bottom with blood outlet means and a top with blood inlet means,
- said upper housing forming a receptacle for accumulating varying amounts of venous blood,
- a heat exchanger coil mounted within the housing and having a plurality vertically arranged convolutions,
- said upper housing inlet means including means for directing incoming blood flow over the convolutions of the heat exchanger coil,
- a defoamer mounted within the upper housing and interposed between the heat exchanger and the upper housing outlet to remove air bubbles in the blood passing to the upper housing outlet,
- a lower housing mounted on the bottom of the upper housing,
- gas-permeable, liquid-impermeable membrane means mounted in the lower housing and forming separate blood and gas flow paths, and
- said lower housing having blood inlet means and blood outlet means communicating with respective opposite ends of the blood flow path, and having gas inlet means and gas outlet means communicating with respective opposite ends of the gas flow path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.