Preclinical evaluation of a hollow fiber silicone membrane oxygenator for extracorporeal membrane oxygenator application

A silicone membrane hollow fiber oxygenator applicable for use as an extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO) has been developed in our laboratory. This silicone hollow fiber displays astonishing mechanical stability, is barely compressible or stretchable, and assembles easily while maintaining good gas permeability. The priming volume is 140 cc with a surface area of 0.8 m2. This study evaluated the gas transfer performances and biocompatibility of the oxygenator under ECMO and CPB conditions. In vitro studies that were performed at a blood flow rate of 2 L/min, and revealed O2 and CO2 gas transfer rates of 82.35 +/- 0.56 ml/m2/L/min and 38.72 +/- 2.88 ml/m2/L/min, respectively. The commercially available Kolobow (Avecor 1500) oxygenator was used as the control, and had O2 and CO2 gas transfer rates of 53.8 +/- 0.5 ml/m2/L/min and 24.7 +/- 2.0 ml/m2/L/min. To evaluate blood trauma, Normalized Index of Hemolysis (NIH) was measured according to American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. The NIH findings were 0.0112 g/100L at a blood flow of 1 L/min, and 0.0152 g/100L at 5 L/min. Three ex vivo experiments, using a blood flow rate of 1 L/min, were performed with venoarterial bypass, and O2 transfer rate and CO2 transfer rate of the oxygenators were well maintained. This indicates that this preclinical silicone membrane hollow fiber oxygenator has superior efficiency, less blood trauma, and is smaller when compared with the only clinically available Kolobow oxygenator.