The Past of the Brilliant Future
People with respiratory diseases and disorders have been present since long ago and we cannot turn a blind eye towards them. This is what ran through the minds of people like Le Gallios who carried out experiments on decapitated rabbits to understand the internal working of animals. I know it may sound strange but this is one of founding methods that led to inventions like the latest artificial lungs.
Similarly, two aspiring individuals — Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw Jr. during the 1920’s had an idea — “What if we create a device that would work by making a negative pressure around the chest causing the lungs to expand and draw air in?”
Well, those questions did get their answers and it led to the discovery of the Iron Lung. As other scientists were doing their own experiments, Brown-Sequard realized the potential for blood to be artificially oxygenated, when blood subjected to vigorous beating process he found that dark blood amalgamated with air thereby the medical implications of artificial oxygenation was recognized and hence the search for a mechanical device that functioned as lung began.
Soon after, a scientist from the same lab, Frey Gruber developed a machine in which a thin layer of blood is rotated in an inclined cylindrical drum and many devices followed, all coming under the category of an oxygenator.
This paved the way for Direct Contact Oxygenators in the early twentieth century, including a pumped bubble oxygenator by Brodie and Drinker.
The first artificial oxygenators to see therapeutic use were designed by American physician John H Gibbon Jr who pioneered the development of a heart-lung machine: a device capable of oxygenating blood that has been through the heart and lungs.
In 1953, Gibbon’s heart-lung machine successfully rejected a human heart from normal circulation for 25 minutes, allowing the surgical repair of an atrial septal defect.
It was by 1944 that Kolff discovered that venous blood became oxygenated simply by running its course through dialyzing tubes. This surprising result meant that oxygenators need not include a blood-air interface, but rather blood and air could be separated by a semi-permeable membrane through which gas transfer occurred.
The advantages inherent to such a membrane oxygenator were clear. As, direct blood-air contact, a major contributor to blood trauma, could be avoided. Unlike bubble oxygenators, membrane oxygenators would not be liable to cause air embolism, and over film oxygenators, the blood would be shielded from harmful screens or metal components.
They were sufficient in operating rooms but were ill equipped to keep up with adult gas exchange for long term life support. Furthermore, they were expensive and complicated. If not done correctly, it could lead to fatal health conditions, even acute renal failure.
Due to such short-comings we were forced to make better modifications to assure the safety of patients. This motivated further innovation within this field which will be discussed next.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301204/
Image credit:
https://www.ranker.com/list/life-in-an-iron-lung/melissa-sartore
