Premium
Extracorporeal membrane blood oxygenators: effect of membrane wetting on gas transfer and device performance
Author(s) -
Di Paola L.,
Terrii A. R.,
Vitale F.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.1655
Subject(s) - wetting , membrane , extracorporeal membrane oxygenation , membrane oxygenator , mass transfer , materials science , chemistry , chemical engineering , medicine , chromatography , anesthesia , composite material , engineering , biochemistry
Hollow fiber contactors are successfully used as blood oxygenators in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); the optimization of these devices relies on a full comprehension of transport mechanisms involving respiratory gasses. This phenomenon is not clearly understood although it strongly affects blood oxygenators' performance. This work presents a model for countercorrent ECMO oxygenators, accounting for both membrane wetting and chemical reactions occurring in these systems. In the first part of the paper, the theoretical framework is presented; later, membrane wetting is analyzed and it is shown its effect on the overall mass transfer coefficients. Namely, it comes to light that membrane wetting strongly reduces membrane performances in terms of gasses transport and of respiratory quotient. Copyright © 2012 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.