A new oxygenator for cardiopulmonary bypass procedures, believed to have significant advantages over existing units, is in early clinical use at St. Barnabas Hospital, New York City.
The single-pass device, which is considerably smaller in both gross size and required priming volume than other units, has been used successfully with eight patients, according to Teruo Hirose, MD, PhD.
It also has been used as an adjunct to delicate intracardiac procedures with animals for nearly two years.
The oxygenator was invented by Hazen F. Everett, medical engineer. Developmental work was supported by St. Barnabas Hospital and C. P. Bailey, MD, director of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. For the past two years, experimental investigation has been extensively conducted under the direction of Dr. Hirose, who is attending surgeon and chief of surgical research, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Advantages of the oxygenator, they believe, include: