Direct drive blood defibrination apparatus and method

Abstract

A direct drive blood defibrination unit and a method of using the unit are presented. The blood defibrination unit includes a vacuum bottle having input, vacuum, dispensing and drive ports therein. Contained within the bottle is a rotatable stir bar which is connected to a drive shaft which passes through the drive port of the vacuum bottle and is connected to a motor. A bacteria and vacuum seal surrounds the drive shaft adjacent the drive port in order to maintain the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the vacuum bottle without bacterial contamination. In operation, the input port of the vacuum bottle is connected to a source of blood to be defibrinated, and the vacuum port is connected to a source of vacuum. The stir bar is rotated during a blood collection time period, and is allowed to continue to rotate for a defibrination time period during which the input and vacuum ports are disconnected. After defibrination, the defibrinated blood is dispensed from the dispensing port. The present invention improves hematocrit of defibrinated blood without bacterial or fibrin contamination. In addition, the unit and method of the present invention decrease the time necessary to collect and defibrinate blood.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.