The magic lung that can breathe new life
Around 150,000 people a year in Britain develop lung disease or suffer injuries to their lungs, with around 20,000 dying. But doctors have just developed the world's first artificial implantable lung in a breakthrough that could save thousands of lives a year.
Researchers believe the new plastic organ could help avoid many of these deaths by allowing the lungs to rest and recover.
It could save the lives of thousands of smokers dying from lung cancer, and could also be used to help young adults dying from conditions such as chronic asthma, cystic fibrosis and diseases causing rupture of the lungs, such as emphysema.
The artificial lung is about the size of a drinks can and works simply.
In initial trials, the lung will be placed outside the body, secured to the patient's chest with lightweight straps.
However, the ultimate goal is to implant it inside the chest cavity.
The lung is attached to the body with artificial blood vessels made from Gortex. These are connected through small incisions in the chest.
One is attached to the main artery coming from the heart into the lung, and lets blood flow into the artificial lung rather than the patient's damaged lungs.
Once the blood enters the artificial lung, it flows past tens of thousands of tiny tubes, each less than the width of human hair, made from a porous, woven plastic.
Through a tube into the bottom of the lung, pure oxygen is pumped from a tank that sits by the patient's bedside.
The tiny pores allow the oxygen to mix with the blood, and also remove carbon dioxide, performing just the same function as a natural lung.
Then, oxygenated blood is returned to the left atrium of the heart.
The artificial lung uses no mechanical pump, instead relying on the heart's own pumping force to send blood from the artery into the chamber.
In a significant breakthrough, a team of researchers implanted the lung into sheep, keeping the animals breathing for ten days.
The device appeared to work both in healthy animals and those suffering from lung conditions equivalent to human diseases.
The experts at the University of Michigan, in the U.S., said the lung was showing such promise that it should reach clinical trials in about a year for lung failure patients awaiting a transplant.
Dr Scott Merz, president of MC3, a company that has been set up to produce the device, said: 'I think this is a very important breakthrough because there is little we can offer patients with pulmonary failure, although it is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
'I hope that within six months to a year we will be ready to move into human tests. A permanent implant is probably some years away, but that is our ultimate goal.'
University of Michigan surgeon and life-support pioneer Dr Robert
Bartlett, who unveiled details of the device at the annual meeting of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs recently, said: 'This generation of long-term implantable artificial lungs is on the verge of reaching the patients who need it most, and have no other options.
We've overcome the technical hurdles and now must confirm that it can truly take over for failing lungs for a longer time, and with less risk, than current life-support technology.'
There are five teams around the world working on artificial lungs, including one at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre in the U.S.
But the Michigan team says that its device has proved most successful in trials, and claims it is the first that could keep patients alive for months, or even years, at a time.
Implantable mechanical hearts are already used in hundreds of patients.
Although they are intended to be used as 'bridges to transplant', keeping patients alive while they await donor organs, many have already been in use for a year or more.
An attempt ten years ago to implant a re-oxygenation device into patients was abandoned due to poor results.
The origin of the artificial lung dates to the Sixties, when researchers sought to improve heart-lung machines used in open-heart surgery.
Those machines take over the work of the heart and lungs so that doctors can operate on a non-beating heart.
Researchers believe the new plastic organ could help avoid many of these deaths by allowing the lungs to rest and recover.
It could save the lives of thousands of smokers dying from lung cancer, and could also be used to help young adults dying from conditions such as chronic asthma, cystic fibrosis and diseases causing rupture of the lungs, such as emphysema.
The artificial lung is about the size of a drinks can and works simply.
In initial trials, the lung will be placed outside the body, secured to the patient's chest with lightweight straps.
However, the ultimate goal is to implant it inside the chest cavity.
The lung is attached to the body with artificial blood vessels made from Gortex. These are connected through small incisions in the chest.
One is attached to the main artery coming from the heart into the lung, and lets blood flow into the artificial lung rather than the patient's damaged lungs.
Once the blood enters the artificial lung, it flows past tens of thousands of tiny tubes, each less than the width of human hair, made from a porous, woven plastic.
Through a tube into the bottom of the lung, pure oxygen is pumped from a tank that sits by the patient's bedside.
The tiny pores allow the oxygen to mix with the blood, and also remove carbon dioxide, performing just the same function as a natural lung.
Then, oxygenated blood is returned to the left atrium of the heart.
The artificial lung uses no mechanical pump, instead relying on the heart's own pumping force to send blood from the artery into the chamber.
In a significant breakthrough, a team of researchers implanted the lung into sheep, keeping the animals breathing for ten days.
The device appeared to work both in healthy animals and those suffering from lung conditions equivalent to human diseases.
The experts at the University of Michigan, in the U.S., said the lung was showing such promise that it should reach clinical trials in about a year for lung failure patients awaiting a transplant.
Dr Scott Merz, president of MC3, a company that has been set up to produce the device, said: 'I think this is a very important breakthrough because there is little we can offer patients with pulmonary failure, although it is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
'I hope that within six months to a year we will be ready to move into human tests. A permanent implant is probably some years away, but that is our ultimate goal.'
University of Michigan surgeon and life-support pioneer Dr Robert
Bartlett, who unveiled details of the device at the annual meeting of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs recently, said: 'This generation of long-term implantable artificial lungs is on the verge of reaching the patients who need it most, and have no other options.
We've overcome the technical hurdles and now must confirm that it can truly take over for failing lungs for a longer time, and with less risk, than current life-support technology.'
There are five teams around the world working on artificial lungs, including one at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre in the U.S.
But the Michigan team says that its device has proved most successful in trials, and claims it is the first that could keep patients alive for months, or even years, at a time.
Implantable mechanical hearts are already used in hundreds of patients.
Although they are intended to be used as 'bridges to transplant', keeping patients alive while they await donor organs, many have already been in use for a year or more.
An attempt ten years ago to implant a re-oxygenation device into patients was abandoned due to poor results.
The origin of the artificial lung dates to the Sixties, when researchers sought to improve heart-lung machines used in open-heart surgery.
Those machines take over the work of the heart and lungs so that doctors can operate on a non-beating heart.
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