Applications of plastics in membrane oxygenators

Current trends in blood oxygenator development favor devices which separate the blood phase from the gas phase by a thin film of plastic material. The additional barrier to diffusion presented by the plastic film is a low price to pay for the advantages of the “membrane oxygenator” over its cruder competitors of the “bubbler” or “filmer” type, namely, the absence of direct exposure of blood to gas (with the ensuing damage to the most fragile blood constituents) and the physical constraint of the extracorporeal blood volume to a fixed‐size compartment (obviating the need for complex volume control systems). The first generation of membrane lungs relied on the plastic materials (“Teflon” and silicone rubber) and shapes (flat sheets and tubes) available for industrial uses. A new line of devices will be made possible by the development of new biomaterials and the development of production technologies for the specific purposes of artificial organ research.