A system and method for extracorporeal lung care

摘要

To provide methods and systems of maintaining, diagnosing, and providing therapy to a lung ex vivo.SOLUTION: A lung care system, as shown in the figure, involves: positioning the lung in an ex vivo perfusion circuit; circulating a perfusion fluid through the lung, the fluid entering the lung through a pulmonary artery interface and leaving the lung through a left atrial interface; and ventilating the lung by flowing a ventilation gas through a tracheal interface. Maintaining the lung for extended periods involves causing the lung to rebreathe a captive volume of air, and reaching an equilibrium state between the perfusion fluid and the ventilation gas. Diagnosing the gas exchange capability of the lung involves deoxygenating the perfusion fluid, and measuring a time taken to reoxygenate the perfusion fluid by ventilating the lung with an oxygenation gas.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 22