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US 6,547,753 B1Granted
Pulsatile flow generation in heart-lung machines
AssigneeMedtronic, Inc.
InventorsSean D. Plunkett, Henry W. Palermo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Pulsatile blood flow in a heart-lung machine is accomplished by pumping blood into a bladder at a constant rate, and cyclically emptying the bladder into aortic line of the heart-lung machine either by means of the bladder's own elasticity or by a mechanical compression mechanism which can be programmed to simulate the human heartbeat.
Claims13
A method of producing pulsatile blood flow to a patient from a heart-lung machine, comprising the steps of:
- a) pumping blood from the patient through an extracorporeal blood circuit and returning the blood to the patient using a pump operating at a substantially constant rate, the blood pumping into an expandable bladder disposed in said extracorporeal circuit;
- b) causing said pumping to increase the pressure of said blood in said bladder;
- c) cyclically blocking the outlet of said bladder to said extracorporeal circuit responsive to a drop in said pressure below a first predetermined level;
- and
- d) cyclically unblocking said outlet responsive to an increase in said pressure above a second, higher, predetermined level to discharge periodic boluses of blood in pulsatile flow to said patient.
2 more elements
A method of producing Pulsatile blood flow to a patient from a heart-lung machine, comprising the steps of:
- a) pumping blood from the patient through an extracorporeal blood circuit and returning the blood to the patient using a pump operating at a substantially constant rate, the blood pumping into an expandable bladder disposed in the extracorporeal blood circuit;
- and
- b) causing said bladder to cyclically contract in response to changes in pressure in the bladder, the cyclical contractions of said bladder causing boluses of blood to be discharged from said bladder in Pulsatile flow to the patient, wherein said bladder is elastic, and the elasticity of said bladder is used as the sole bias for discharging said blood bolus when said bladder contracts.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.