Hollow fiber blood oxygenator

An upright hollow fiber oxygenator comprising:

• a fiber bundle positioned around a supporting core having a top end and a bottom end and an axis extending therebetween, the bundle including hollow gas permeable fibers each having an open top end, an open bottom end, and a hollow interior, the top ends of the fibers being adjacent to top end of the core and the bottom ends of the fibers being adjacent to the bottom end of the core;
• an interior housing surrounding said bundle, said interior housing being made of a material which allows heat transfer therethrough;
• upper potting means to seal the outside of the top ends of each of said fibers in said bundle to one another and to seal the bundle to the top end of the core and to the surrounding interior housing thereabout;
• lower potting means to seal the outside of the bottom ends of each of said fibers in said bundle to one another and to seal the hollow fiber bundle to the bottom end of the core and to the surrounding interior housing thereabout, wherein the upper and lower potting means, the core, and the interior housing together define an enclosed fiber bundle unit, the top and bottom ends of each said fibers in the fiber bundle being open to the hollow interiors of said fibers;
• a gas inlet port to allow gas passage into the hollow interiors of said fibers at one end of the fibers, and a gas outlet port to permit gas passage from the hollow interiors of said fibers at the opposite end of said fibers;
• a heat exchanger unit which surrounds and receives the fiber bundle unit;
• an outer housing enclosing said heat exchanger unit, said outer housing having a fluid inlet port and a fluid outlet port in fluid communication with said heat exchanger unit for passage of a heat transfer fluid therethrough;
• a blood inlet port in fluid communication with said heat exchanger unit through a bottom end of said outer housing to allow blood flowing therethrough to communicate with said heat exchanger unit with an upward flow through said heat exchanger unit so that gasses in the blood can rise therewith and therefrom during flow through the heat exchanger unit;
• and
• a gas trap and a venous gas port placed in a top outer housing cap in an upper portion of said heat exchanger unit, wherein gas which is released from the blood while the blood flows upward through said heat exchanger unit collects in said gas trap, and wherein said venous gas port is constructed to permit gas to escape therethrough.