A combined cardiotomy and venous blood reservoir (10) according to a preferredembodiment of the invention provides a separate in-flow path for bothcardiotomy fluid and for venous blood, and includes a cardiotomy fluid filterelement (66) also serving as an initial de-foamer. The cardiotomy fluid is de-foamed, filtered, and again de-foamed. The venous blood is de-foamed, and thenboth fluids are combined for flow from the reservoir (10). The filter area(152') provided for cardiotomy fluid is advantageously separated from the areaof a final de-foamer element (152''). Thus, both the cardiotomy fluid andvenous blood may flow through this final de-foamer element (152'')simultaneously along separate flow paths. The reservoir (10) design providesgreater freedom in selecting adequate filter area (152') for the cardiotomyfluid, while allowing the selection of effective de-foamer element (152'')area in order to achieve acceptable flow rates for both cardiotomy fluid andfor venous blood under various conditions of operation for the reservoir (10).An advantageous ratio of filter (152') and de-foamer element (152'') areas tothe volume of the reservoir (10) results, with the reservoir (10) requiringonly an essential volume of fluid for processing. Also venous blood andcardiotomy fluid flow inlets (32, 34) to the apparatus may be rotatable inplan view independently both of one another and of a housing (12) of thereservoir (10).
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