Blood Oxygenators and Artificial Lungs

This chapter is aimed at discussing the main engineering aspects involved in the design of artificial lungs, defining the limits of the currently available devices and understanding the challenges for further developments. To that end, the first part of the chapter provides a short overview of the functions of the respiratory system, that allows defining the medical requirements for the artificial devices and the goals that must be achieved in their design; information on the historical development of the artificial lungs is also included. Subsequently, the physical and chemical fundamentals of gas solubility in blood and gas transport through the membranes widely used in artificial lungs are presented. These fundamentals provide the basis for the engineering analysis of the artificial lung and assessment of its performance. The chapter is concluded with a survey of the state of the art of the clinically used devices with indications for possible further improvements.