Lungs behind the back
In the future, artificial lungs can be carried in a backpack
Sergey Gray, Hi-News (based on New Scientis: Artificial lungs in a backpack may free people with lung failure – VM).
Artificial lungs, compact enough to be carried in a normal backpack, have already been successfully tested on animals. Such devices can make life much more comfortable for those people whose own lungs are not functioning properly for some reason. Until now, very bulky equipment has been used for these purposes, but a new device being developed by scientists at the moment is capable of changing this once and for all.
A person whose lungs are unable to perform their main function, as a rule, join machines that pump their blood through the gas exchange, enriching it with oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from it. Of course, during this process, a person is forced to lie on a bed or couch. And the longer they stay in a supine state, the weaker their muscles become, making recovery unlikely. It was in order to make patients mobile that compact artificial lungs were developed. The problem became especially urgent in 2009, when there was an outbreak of swine flu, as a result of which many patients had lung failure.
Artificial lungs can not only help patients rehabilitate from some lung infections, but also allow patients to wait for suitable donor lungs for transplantation. As you know, the waiting list for donor organs can sometimes stretch for many years. The situation is complicated by the fact that people with failed lungs, as a rule, have a severely weakened heart, which will have to pump blood through an external device.
"Creating artificial lungs is a much more difficult task than designing an artificial heart. The heart simply pumps blood, whereas the lungs are a complex network of alveoli, within which the process of gas exchange takes place. To date, there is no technology that can even come close to the effectiveness of real lungs," says William Federspiel, an employee of the University of Pittsburgh.
William Federspiel's team has developed artificial lungs that include a pump (supporting the heart) and a gas exchanger, but the device is so compact that it can easily fit into a small bag or backpack. The device is connected to tubes connected to the human circulatory system, effectively enriching the blood with oxygen and removing excess carbon dioxide from it. This month, successful tests of the device on four experimental sheep were completed, during which the animals' blood was saturated with oxygen for different periods of time. Thus, scientists gradually brought the time of continuous operation of the device to five days.
An alternative model of artificial lungs is being developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. This device is intended primarily for those patients whose heart is healthy enough to pump blood independently through an external artificial organ. The device is similarly connected to tubes directly connected to the human heart, after which it is attached to his body with straps. So far, both devices need an oxygen source, in other words, an additional portable cylinder. On the other hand, at the moment scientists are trying to solve this problem, and they are quite successful.
Right now, researchers are testing a prototype artificial lung that no longer needs an oxygen tank. According to the official statement, the new generation of the device will be even more compact, and oxygen will be released from the surrounding air. The prototype is currently being tested on laboratory rats and demonstrates truly impressive results. The secret of the new model of artificial lungs is the use of ultra-thin (only 20 micrometers) tubes made of polymer membranes, which significantly increase the gas exchange surface.
Article by Madhani et al. In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of a Novel Integrated Wearable Artificial Lung is published in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation – VM.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
23.03.2017