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Ask HN: Dialysis Machine for Lungs?
Why can't we use or modify a dialysis machine to filter co2 and add o2 to the blood stream as away to offset the need for a ventilator... the lungs in covid-19 are clearly failing... it seems like a ventilator is only going to helps so much if the lungs are failing already...
Has there been any research into this or anyone thinking this way?
- joezydeco 7y agoThis machine exists. It's known as an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine. https://www.thoracic.org/patients/patient-resources/resources/what-is-ecmo.pdf https://www.thoracic.org/patients/patient-resources/resource... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2761778 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2761778 Some extreme COVID patents have been put on ECMOs to try and save their lives. It's a last resort, however. The machines are intricate and hospitals have very few of them, if at all. There's also concern that ECMOs filter or damage immune system cells, making the recovery even harder.
- taf2 7y agoWow thank you so much! I feel like investing more energy into building these machines would save more lives than just ventilators? For the people who have been put on these machines I wonder what the mortality rate is compared to those that can't get access to them... [edit] i'm definitely not implying we should pull resources away from ventilator production just why not also put resources into these machines too
- gus_massa 7y agoIANAMD. Keeping for a long time the connection to extract and reinsert the blood is a problem, because they can disconnect, get clogged or infected.
- taf2 7y agoThanks again - seems like a good engineering problem to solve
- joezydeco 7y agoIf you can solve the problem of oxygenating blood without damaging white cells, you'd be onto something.
- taf2 7y agowhat about a different solution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing - is this possible? instead of pumping air into the lungs... an oxygen rich liquid? Could even use it as a method to maybe rinse the lungs of dead cells?