Initial clinical experience with a low pressure drop membrane oxygenator for cardiopulmonary bypass in adult patients.

The new Travenol oxygenator is composed of 80 parallel blood pathways. Microporous membrane separates the blood and gas compartments. The membrane surface area is 3 m2, with a pore size of 0.01 microns. Venous blood drains directly from the patient through the oxygenator, then through an integral heat exchanger and into a reservoir, from which a single arterial pump returns the blood to the patient. The advantage of this configuration of membrane oxygenator is simplicity of setup and operation. A disadvantage that we have observed is an apparent variation in resistance to blood flow through the oxygenator during clinical perfusion. Construction changes in a later version of the oxygenator have reduced the resistance to flow through the blood pathway. This device has been used for 20 perfusions at moderate hypothermia (mean 31.8 degrees C) in patients up to 2.1 m2 body surface area for up to 313 minutes. Blood flow was 2.1 to 5.6 liters/min, partial arterial oxygen pressure 100 to 394 torr, partial arterial carbon dioxide pressure 19 to 57 torr (mean 37 torr) and, arterial pH 7.29 to 7.56 (mean 7.41). Oxygen transfer was as high as 230 ml/min. This integral oxygenator-heat exchanger-reservoir is operated like a bubble oxygenator, with direct venous drainage through the device and a single pump, but it uses a membrane oxygenator for gas exchange to eliminate the detrimental effects of bubbles.