Novalung - Ecmo - "to Go" / Ecmo "light" oxygenates great -less filling
Novalung first for FAI
Thomas Buchsein of fixed-wing a air ambulance provider Flight Ambulance International (FAI) reports on the company´s first use of Novalung technology.
The letters ARC´S (acute respirattory distress syndrome) and All (acute lung injury y) stare for the most severe types of respiratory failure e, which are a common clinical appearance and thhe often lethal common path of a variety of diag gnoses such as pneumonia (including all types of influenza associated chest infections), severe multiple e trauma arc septic shock. Striving always to be att the frontier of mobile intensive care medicine, FFAI used the Novalung iLA (interventional lung as ssist) Membrane Ventilator for the first time, a new w extracorporal ´artificial lung´ technology, to assis st conventional mechanical ventilation in ARDS ppatients arc to prevent the often irreversible lung ttissue damage that is typically associated with aggress sive mechanical ventilation strategies. The system m is characterized by a low-resistance membrane, whicch is integrated in an artificial arterio -venous byp pass. Driven by the patient´s own blood pressure (thu us independent of any mechanical pump and pow wer source), the blood flow is shunted from thee cannulised femoral artery to the also-can nulise eo femoral vein through a small (´•. 4x; 4 cm) plas stic box, containing the core of the system: the af orementioned sophisticated gas-exchanging, he eparin-coated hollow-fibro diffusion membrane, w which does what the patients lungs fail to do -removin ng carbon dioxide and adding oxygen to the blood.
Our first mission with the new sysstem took us to Kuwait, where we had been aske ed not only to transport a patient. but also to as ssist the local medical team with a ven/ challen ging intensive care and mechanical ventilation. T The patient was a 52-year old technical engineer with AARDS subsequent 10 severe bilateral p neumonia and sepsis. From our preflight assessm ment, we were already aware that chest X-rays sshowed a ´white lung´ and that the ventilator was a already set to a very high oxygen concentration o of 90 per cent and a PEEP (peak end-expiratory presssure) of ! 5 mmHg, parameters that wouid normallly dearly forbid any air transport.
The FAI medical team (Dr Gotz L Leonhard, deputy chief medical officer, and Simon n Obier chief paramedic) was for this particularr mission supplemented by Bemd Resio, a very h helpful Novalung Medical Technician and ´rained in ntensive care unit nurse. After the usual general p patient assessment. Dr Leonhard performed a Dopple er-ultrasound examination, relocate and measure sanguine vessels before successfully cannulising thhem. He then connected the iLA-membrane box aand opened the arterio-venous shunt through the iLA-box in which gases and blood are separated only by the aforem mentioned low-resistance diffusion membrane, anaalogous to the natural lung. During the following g hours, it -was possible to gradually adjust the re spirator towards lung protective parameters without the e limitations usually imposed by the need for pulm monary gas exchange. Twenty -four hours lat ter, the patient was considered stable enough to ttake him onboard. The flight was conducted at the s standard cabin pressure of 7,5)00 ft without any a adverse effects - pulsoxymetry, capnometry and b blood gases remained stable throughout the flight.
Summary
The Novalung Membrane Ventilator is a lightweight, low-cost, easy-to-use pumpleess (driven by the patients cardiac output) pulmona ary assist device, clinically already well establishe ed in patients with acute lung failure. \~ is now enterring the world of aero medical transport as a new w and promising asset in helping our patients to survive.
more info on the Novalung
Showing posts with label Replacement Lung. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Replacement Lung. Show all posts
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Sherbrooke man survives rare lung surgery
Sherbrooke man survives rare lung surgery
Thu Jul 8, 4:55 PM
Doctors in Sherbrooke, Que. are hopeful that a man suffering from severe pneumonia may have a fighting chance after surviving a rare lung procedure.
The man is believed to be the first in Quebec to have survived the surgery to attach an external artificial lung, known as a Novalung, to his leg.
The device is meant to perform some of the functions of a normal lung, including clearing the body of carbon dioxide and pumping a small amount of oxygen into the body through the arteries and veins in the leg.
The patients involved in the first two surgeries in Quebec did not survive the procedure.
Doctors said the device can only operate for up to 29 days.
It´s going to be there for a short period of time, after a while we´re going to take it out. The device is just to let the lung recover from the pneumonia, said Dr. Marco Sirois, a thoracic surgeon with Sherbrooke University Health Centre.
The 47-year old patient, who cannot be identified due to privacy regulations, is still in critical condition. His daughters said they remain optimistic, despite the fact that their father is still seriously ill.
"Were trying to stay realistic," said Noémie, one of the patient´s daughters.
"But the surgery has given us hope, said the other daughter, Jessica.
The surgery is so rare in Quebec that doctors in Sherbrooke sought the help of a specialist from Toronto, who was flown in from Montreal in a Quebec provincial police helicopter.
The Novalung is also sometimes used to help patients who are waiting for a lung transplant.
see more info on the novalung
Thu Jul 8, 4:55 PM
Doctors in Sherbrooke, Que. are hopeful that a man suffering from severe pneumonia may have a fighting chance after surviving a rare lung procedure.
The man is believed to be the first in Quebec to have survived the surgery to attach an external artificial lung, known as a Novalung, to his leg.
The device is meant to perform some of the functions of a normal lung, including clearing the body of carbon dioxide and pumping a small amount of oxygen into the body through the arteries and veins in the leg.
The patients involved in the first two surgeries in Quebec did not survive the procedure.
Doctors said the device can only operate for up to 29 days.
It´s going to be there for a short period of time, after a while we´re going to take it out. The device is just to let the lung recover from the pneumonia, said Dr. Marco Sirois, a thoracic surgeon with Sherbrooke University Health Centre.
The 47-year old patient, who cannot be identified due to privacy regulations, is still in critical condition. His daughters said they remain optimistic, despite the fact that their father is still seriously ill.
"Were trying to stay realistic," said Noémie, one of the patient´s daughters.
"But the surgery has given us hope, said the other daughter, Jessica.
The surgery is so rare in Quebec that doctors in Sherbrooke sought the help of a specialist from Toronto, who was flown in from Montreal in a Quebec provincial police helicopter.
The Novalung is also sometimes used to help patients who are waiting for a lung transplant.
see more info on the novalung
Thursday, September 2, 2010
First Working Replacement Lung Created in Lab
First Working Replacement Lung Created in Lab
An engineered lung (bottom) worked when implanted into a rat (top).
For the first time scientists have reconstructed working lungs in the lab and transplanted them into a living animal. The achievement is a breakthrough in biomedical engineering that could lead to replacement lungs for humans in the near future, experts say.
that's vulnerable to tissue rejection.
In a new study, researchers took lungs from a living rat and used detergents to remove lung cells and blood vessels, revealing the organ's underlying matrix. This lung "skeleton"—made of flexible proteins, sugars, and other chemicals—consists of a branching network that divides more than 20 times into smaller and smaller structures. (See an interactive graphic of lung structure.)
The researchers placed these "decellularized" lungs into a bioreactor, a machine filled with a slurry containing different types of lung cells extracted from rat fetuses. Within several days, the fetal cells naturally attached to the lung matrix and formed a functional lung.
"By and large, the correct subsets of cells went to their correct anatomical locations," explained study leader Laura Niklason, a biomedical engineer at Yale University. "It appears that the lung matrix has cues, or 'zip codes,' that tell the cells where to land."
When the team implanted the engineered lungs into an adult rat for short periods of time—between 45 minutes and two hours—the lungs exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide in the same way as natural lungs.
"Leap Forward"
By using a natural lung matrix, Niklason's team has avoided one of the biggest hurdles of lung-regeneration attempts—finding a suitable "scaffold" for lung cells to attach to.
Because manufacturing techniques cannot yet replicate nature's complex design, attempts to create synthetic scaffolds have been unsuccessful. Niklason spent several years trying to create a synthetic lung scaffold, but in the end concluded it was too difficult.
"I decided I couldn't do it, and probably nobody else could either," she said.
The new research represents a "real leap forward" in lung regeneration, said Peter Lelkes, a biomedical engineer at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
"People have engineered organs such as bone and cartilage before, but by comparison to the lung, these are all kids' games," added Lelkes, who was not involved with the study.
Stem Cell Hurdle
Niklason estimates it will be about 20 to 25 years before her team's technique can be used in humans.
That's because a few technical and scientific challenges remain.
Chief among these is finding ways of creating stem cells—which can transform into any other type of cell—from patients with lung disease. No techniques currently exist for creating such cells, which would carry no risk of immune rejection.
(Related: "Liposuction Fat Turned Into Stem Cells, Study Says.")
"The stem cell issue," Niklason said, "is really the big fundamental scientific hurdle."
The research is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science
Ker Than for National Geographic News
published June 24, 2010
see more at news nationalgeographic com news replacement lab
An engineered lung (bottom) worked when implanted into a rat (top).
For the first time scientists have reconstructed working lungs in the lab and transplanted them into a living animal. The achievement is a breakthrough in biomedical engineering that could lead to replacement lungs for humans in the near future, experts say.
that's vulnerable to tissue rejection.
In a new study, researchers took lungs from a living rat and used detergents to remove lung cells and blood vessels, revealing the organ's underlying matrix. This lung "skeleton"—made of flexible proteins, sugars, and other chemicals—consists of a branching network that divides more than 20 times into smaller and smaller structures. (See an interactive graphic of lung structure.)
The researchers placed these "decellularized" lungs into a bioreactor, a machine filled with a slurry containing different types of lung cells extracted from rat fetuses. Within several days, the fetal cells naturally attached to the lung matrix and formed a functional lung.
"By and large, the correct subsets of cells went to their correct anatomical locations," explained study leader Laura Niklason, a biomedical engineer at Yale University. "It appears that the lung matrix has cues, or 'zip codes,' that tell the cells where to land."
When the team implanted the engineered lungs into an adult rat for short periods of time—between 45 minutes and two hours—the lungs exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide in the same way as natural lungs.
"Leap Forward"
By using a natural lung matrix, Niklason's team has avoided one of the biggest hurdles of lung-regeneration attempts—finding a suitable "scaffold" for lung cells to attach to.
Because manufacturing techniques cannot yet replicate nature's complex design, attempts to create synthetic scaffolds have been unsuccessful. Niklason spent several years trying to create a synthetic lung scaffold, but in the end concluded it was too difficult.
"I decided I couldn't do it, and probably nobody else could either," she said.
The new research represents a "real leap forward" in lung regeneration, said Peter Lelkes, a biomedical engineer at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
"People have engineered organs such as bone and cartilage before, but by comparison to the lung, these are all kids' games," added Lelkes, who was not involved with the study.
Stem Cell Hurdle
Niklason estimates it will be about 20 to 25 years before her team's technique can be used in humans.
That's because a few technical and scientific challenges remain.
Chief among these is finding ways of creating stem cells—which can transform into any other type of cell—from patients with lung disease. No techniques currently exist for creating such cells, which would carry no risk of immune rejection.
(Related: "Liposuction Fat Turned Into Stem Cells, Study Says.")
"The stem cell issue," Niklason said, "is really the big fundamental scientific hurdle."
The research is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science
Ker Than for National Geographic News
published June 24, 2010
see more at news nationalgeographic com news replacement lab
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