the world`s smallest heart and lung machine

Joas | 5/29/2012

The world`s smallest heart and lung machine has made it`s way to North Dakota and Trinity Health in Minot was the first to have it. It`s called Cardiohelp and it`s a portable artificial lung and heart. It helps patients who are too unstable for surgery.

The device has helped one patient for 54 days.

Trinity Health says they`re proud to be the first to offer this service in the state.

"It allows us not only to stabilize patients, but to potentially transfer them out to a higher level care center, a university for longer term therapy. We don`t have the resources here to manage a critically I`ll patient on this device," said Trinity Health Cardiovascular Surgeon Dr. Christopher Phillips.

Fargo also purchased Cardiohelp shortly after Trinity Health in Minot. Only 20 centers in the United States have this device.

Artificial lung device pioneered at UK

Artificial lung device pioneered at UK a ‘new breath of life’ for Pike County man


37 years of working in the coal mines in Eastern Kentucky, Ernie Gillispie of Canada, Ky., in Pike County, had black lung disease. Suffering from the condition for more than 25 years, Gillispie said it became a challenge to walk even 5 feet and forced him to begin using a wheelchair in December 2010. However, an artificial lung device pioneered at UK HealthCare led to Gillispie being eligible to undergo a life-saving transplant.

Although there was much uncertainty when the Gillispies first came to UK HealthCare, they were willing to take chances to improve Ernie’s quality of life. “We met with Dr. Charles Hoopes to see if there was anything we could do,” said Vanessia Gillispie, Ernie’s wife of more than 30 years

Hoopes, UK HealthCare’s new director of the UK Heart and Lung Transplant Program and the director of the Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program, shared with the Gillispies an option that could save his life, but risk was involved because it had not been done before at UK.

Hoopes recommended Gillispie undergo surgery to allow the use of an artificial lung and double lumen catheter, an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), to improve his condition and quality of life, with the hope that this improvement would make him a candidate for a double lung transplant.

“The goal of artificial lung technology in patients like Mr. Gillispie is to demonstrate that lung transplantation will be effective therapy,” said Hoopes. “If by replacing the lungs with an artificial membrane allows a patient to exercise and function normally, then lung transplantation will benefit the patient and dramatically improve their quality of life.”

ECMO, which is used in cases is so severe that the usual therapy of a respirator, machines and extra oxygen are ineffective, allows blood to receive oxygen from the artificial device. This particular device was created by UK HealthCare’s surgeon in chief, Dr. Jay Zwischenberger and is used worldwide.

Flu problems brewing in the UK

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, has written to the Government urging it to step up its publicity campaign telling people at risk that the vaccine is safe and effective.
He said: 'Family doctors are already seeing high rates of influenza and they have been telling us that they are also seeing a lower uptake than usual for seasonal flu immunisation. 'Myths persist about the safety of the vaccine, especially after swine flu. 'The vaccine has been thoroughly tested and we strongly urge patients to make an appointment with their GP and get vaccinated.

'It is only the beginning of winter so we could see many more cases of flu for the next few months - the BMA strongly urges at-risk groups to get immunised, flu can be extremely serious.'
Overall, 17 people, including four pregnant women, with confirmed swine flu have received specialist intensive care treatment - known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) - so far this flu season.  ECMO is a life support system for the most severe cases and uses an artificial lung to oxygenate the blood outside the body.
During the pandemic, pregnant women who caught swine flu were found to be more at risk of breathing problems than women who were not pregnant.  Louise Silverton, Deputy General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, added: 'Pregnant women should not panic, but we do advise them to have the vaccine and practise good hand hygiene to prevent the spread of germs.

see more info at....
UK GPs warn major flu crisis brewing

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1339564/Pregnant-women-urged-flu-jab-GPs-warn-major-flu-crisis-brewing.html#ixzz18R60f6Mu

$14 million to fund artificial lung trials: ALung

firm raises $14 million to fund artificial lung trials


A South Side-based medical device company raised $14 million to fund the completion of clinical trials on its artificial lung device-- in use by two patients in Germany -- as a prelude to seeking approval in the United States, the company said Thursday.

ALung Technologies Inc. completed raising the $14 million in preferred stock this week, which should provide the company with financing through January 2012 so that it can complete its pilot trials, CEO Peter DeComo said. The company had raised $16.5 million in private money over the past decade.

Of the $14 million in new funding, $500,000 came from Birchmere Ventures, a venture capital firm that targets early-stage companies, also based on the South Side. The remainder came from 90 individual investors, some of whom are physicians, said Mel Pirchesky, president of Eagle Ventures Inc., a Highland Park-based firm that raised the money. Pirchesky, whose company charged a percentage of the amount of money it raised, said he is among the investors in ALung.

ALung's Hemolung is designed to replace or supplement traditional ventilators used in hospitals. The artificial lung removes carbon dioxide from the blood and replaces it with oxygen, which is pumped into the patient's blood as it circulates through tubes connected to a vein.
DeComo was optimistic that successful use of the artificial lung on the patients in Germany will lead to an approval for use in Europe by mid-2011. The data gathered from the pilot project can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, DeComo said. ALung intends to apply to the FDA for permission to conduct a "pivotal trial" test on patients in the United States, he noted.

Approval for use in the European Union will permit ALung to generate revenue while conducting U.S. trials, DeComo said.
"There's no way we can't get through the FDA trials" and win approval to use the artificial lung in the United States, DeComo said.

To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/.
By Joe Napsha, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Oct.

NovaLung in use with a 2 year old in Missouri

NovaLung in use with a 2 year old in Missouri

Toddler Is World’s Youngest Recipient of Artificial Lung


With the help of German-made NovaLung, 2-year-old Missourian Owen Stark is breathing easily.

When toddler Owen Stark's heart stopped beating not once, but 10 times, his parents thought they would lose him forever. Having been unsuccessful in waiting for a lung donor, they agreed to try an artificial lung device — with successful results.

It was during a shopping trip that the previously healthy 2-year-old collapsed near his Missouri home and was rushed to hospital, unable to breathe, reports Britain's Daily Mail. Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs), he was put on a heart/lung bypass machine at St Louis Children's Hospital while the search for a suitable donor began.

Patients can only be kept on a bypass machine for a limited time before it causes irreversible damage, so time was running out. His parents made the brave decision to try something new: a German-built artificial lung device, called NovaLung. It was the first time a patient as young as their son had been fitted with the device.

Placed outside the body, the little white box is attached by two tubes removing carbon dioxide outside the human lung and perfused with blood by the heart like a natural organ. Doctors have been amazed by Stark's response to his sessions on the machine. Pediatric cardiologist at the hospital, Dr. Mark Grady said, "This absolutely saved his life. He could be going home within a month, which we never ever thought would be possible."

Expected to lead a relatively long and happy life thanks to his new treatment, Stark's parents couldn't be happier. Owen's mother Tonya Stark added, "His life expectancy has gone from a few days to a few weeks and now years — it's a miracle."

By Monique Jessen
 September 1, 2010


toddler gets the Novalung artificial lung, click for more info