In U.S. Patent Application 20090093751, inventors Chi-Wei Tao and Yang-Shan Yeh (Taipei City, TW) disclose a device to deliver oxygen to people suffering from chronic lung diseases. The instrument is a normal pressure to hyperbaric intravascular nano-bubbling oxygenation system comprised of a catheter with single or multi-lumens, a tube wall with numerous nano-sized pores on its surface which is capable of being inserted into a blood vessel to transport gas.
The annual mortality rate for all lung diseases is estimated to be approximately 250,000 in the U.S. in 2000. About 150,000 patients were related to acute, potentially reversible respiratory failure and 100,000 patients related to chronic respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) or chronic irreversible respiratory failure due to other illness. The estimated economic burden of these diseases is in the range of 72 billion dollars per year. The rate of death related to COPD has increased by 54%, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that COPD will affect 5-15% of all adults in industrialized countries and accounting for 3 million deaths worldwide in 2020, as the 5th most prevalent disease and the 3rd leading cause of mortality.
The primary purpose of Tao and Yeh’s design is to replace the oxygenation function of the diseased lung during acute or chronic lung function and ventilatory impairment. Because the exchange rate of CO2 by the lungs is about 200 times more than that of oxygen, the oxygenation problem is the first and most serious clinical problem to face. Most of the clinical problems of CO2 retention can be solved simply by the patients themselves or by the mechanical ventilation to increase the minute ventilation. So Tao and Yeh simply focused on the resolutions for the main problem of acute, moderate to severe hypoxemia and chronic respiratory failure with long-term hypoxemia.
The primary purpose of Tao and Yeh’s design is to replace the oxygenation function of the diseased lung during acute or chronic lung function and ventilatory impairment. Because the exchange rate of CO2 by the lungs is about 200 times more than that of oxygen, the oxygenation problem is the first and most serious clinical problem to face. Most of the clinical problems of CO2 retention can be solved simply by the patients themselves or by the mechanical ventilation to increase the minute ventilation. So Tao and Yeh simply focused on the resolutions for the main problem of acute, moderate to severe hypoxemia and chronic respiratory failure with long-term hypoxemia.
Due to the improvement of biomaterial, the possibility to use normal pressure to hyperbaric nano-sized pure oxygen bubbles to improve oxygenation of the intracaval deoxygenated hemoglobin is reachable. In patients with acute respiratory failure, the normal pressure to hyperbaric nano-bubbling intracaval oxygenator can replace the conventional mechanical ventilator, IVOX, IMO, and ECMO, to facilitate the oxygen demand of the patients. In patients of chronic respiratory failure, a low-flow intravenous oxygenator can replace conventional oxygen therapy system, improving the power and the motivation of patient activities.
The intravascular nano-bubbling oxygenator utilizes an intravascular catheter with numerous nano-porous surface, in order to facilitate oxygen bubbles binding with the deoxygenated hemoglobin of the red cells in cardiovascular system. The nano oxygenators were designed to improve the clinical hypoxic patients with any kinds of acute or chronic reasons.
The intravascular nano-bubbling oxygenator utilizes an intravascular catheter with numerous nano-porous surface, in order to facilitate oxygen bubbles binding with the deoxygenated hemoglobin of the red cells in cardiovascular system. The nano oxygenators were designed to improve the clinical hypoxic patients with any kinds of acute or chronic reasons.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, illustrate a one lumen type of a normal pressure to hyperbaric intravascular nano-bubbling oxygenator. A partial porous catheter comprises a tube wall having lots of pores. The catheter is capable of being inserted into a blood vessel. The cross-section area of the catheter is less than three fourths (3/4) of the cross-section area of the blood vessel. The length of the catheter in a blood vessel varies from person to person depending on patient's body size. The catheter comprises the biomaterial, such as, polymer, or ceramic, or metal, or composites. The tube wall is hydrophobic and able to prevent bacterial colonization and thrombogenesis. The porous area portion of the tube wall is five (5)% to nine-nine (99)% of the entire catheter in the blood vessel. The sizes of the pores are ranged from 0.3 nanometer to five hundred (500) micrometer.
110 partial porous catheter | 131 a flow adjustor with a flow sensor |
111 tube wall | 132 a pressure adjustor with a barometer |
112 lots of pores | 133 thermo adjustor with a thermometer |
120 a connector | 140 pipe connects the gas transporting apparatus and a gas tank |
130 gas transporting apparatus | 141 a regulator |
142 high pressure gas tank or any other gas container |
FIG. 3, it is the flowchart to illustrate the method for oxygenation. At step 310, a pressurized pure oxygen source is prepared. The oxygen source may be tank containing pressurized pure oxygen. At step 320, a gas transporting apparatus, including a flow adjuster, a pressure adjuster, and a thermal adjuster to control the range parameters of the gas flow, temperature, and pressure of the oxygen, is connected to a gas lumen of a porous catheter with nano to micro-meter sized pores. At step 330, the oxygen source is connected to the gas transporting apparatus.
At step 340, the porous catheter is inserted into a blood vessel of a living body. At step 350, the gas transporting apparatus controls the distribution of the oxygen to the vascular system through the porous catheter. At step 360, a blood oxygen concentration, a vena caval pressure, a heart rate, and a temperature of the living body are measured to as the control signals to feedback to the computer in a panel. At step 370, the control signals are compared with the predetermined ranges set in the computer, and the panel sends commands to the gas transporting apparatus, and then back to the step 350.
