Effect of gas channel heterogeneity on the carbon dioxide output rate of membrane oxygenators

Abstract

Standard efficiency is an important functional parameters of membrane oxygenators. Standard efficiency of membrane oxygenators is determined, for example, by the AAMI Standard [5], and it is estimated by the amount of oxygen absorbed by blood or by the carbon dioxide removal from blood, whichever is the rate-limiting process. Study of processes both in individual gas channels and in the oxygenator as a whole [1, 2, 4] revealed that oxygen transport is the rate-limiting process in modern membrane oxygenators with continuous homogeneous high-permeability separating membranes. However, in experimental