turn now to the drawings and , initially , to fig2 which illustrates a new configuration intravascular membrane lung 20 embodying the present invention . the primary structural member of the lung 20 is an elongated multi - lumen catheter 22 which may be , for example , a commercially available diagnostic pulmonary artery catheter such as the opticath ® catheter manufactured and sold by oximetrix , inc . of mountain view , calif . the catheter 22 is more clearly illustrated in fig3 . it is of a flexible plastic material , preferably extruded polyvinyl chloride . specifically , it is formed to include a ventilation , or gas inlet , conduit 24 , a ventilation , or gas outlet , conduit 26 , a balloon filling conduit 28 , a blood sampling conduit 30 , and optical fibers 32 which extend between its proximal end 34 and its distal end 36 . the catheter 22 may be of any suitable length and in a size appropriate to accommodate the gas exchange requirements of an adult human being . for this purpose , it may have an outer diameter of approximately 5 . 6 mm and a wall thickness of approximately 0 . 2 mm . by way of the conduit 28 , an inflatable balloon 38 at the distal end 36 of the catheter 22 can be selectively inflated between an ordinarily inactive solid line position and an inflated position as indicated by dotted lines in fig2 . with particular reference now to fig2 , and 5 , the artificial lung 20 is provided with three distinct gas exchange regions 40 , 42 , and 44 , respectively . when the lung 20 has finally assumed its operational position within a living body 46 as seen in fig4 and in even greater detail in fig5 the gas exchange region 40 of the lung 20 will be positioned within and substantially coextensive with the inferior vena cava 48 , the gas exchange region 42 will be positioned within and substantially coextensive with the right ventricle 50 , and the gas exchange region 44 will be positioned within and substantially coextensive with the pulmonary artery 52 . by so placing the artificial lung 20 , it is able to effect gas exchange with venous blood draining from all of the tissues of the body thereby providing an excellent opportunity for exchanging the entire basal oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production of the body . at each of the gas exchange regions 40 , 42 , 44 , there is a plurality of manifold sleeves 54 sealingly fixed to the catheter 22 at side - by - side spaced apart locations . as seen particularly well in fig6 each of the manifold sleeves 54 overlies and contains a pair of apertures 56 , 58 in the catheter 22 . the apertures 56 are sized and positioned to communicate with the inlet conduit 24 while the apertures 58 are sized and positioned to communicate with the outlet conduit 26 . each manifold sleeve 54 is coaxial with the catheter 22 , having a cylindrical wall 60 with an outer peripheral surface which is parallel to that of the outer surface of the catheter 22 . in this manner , an annular space 62 is defined between the outer peripheral surface of the catheter and the cylindrical wall 60 . additionally , the cylindrical wall 60 is formed with a plurality of ports 64 ( see fig6 , and 8 ) which extend therethrough at a large number of longitudinally and circumferentially spaced locations . a pair of perforated end caps 66 , 68 positioned in spaced parallel planes are sealingly attached to the catheter 22 and to the cylindrical wall 60 . epoxy or other suitable adhesive may be employed for this purpose . the components of the manifold sleeves 54 are preferably composed of polycarbonate because of its ease of machining , moderate thromboresistance and its ability to be coated with heparin via the carmeda ® process . other suitable materials are within the scope of the invention , however . in a typical construction , the outer diameter of each manifold would be 7 mm and the annular space 62 would typically have a transverse dimension of 0 . 2 mm . in like manner , the ports 64 would have a diameter of approximately 0 . 4 mm . as seen particularly well in fig6 , and 8 , hollow polypropylene fibers 70 whose generally cylindrical walls are microporous membranes and which may nominally have a wall thickness of approximately 50 microns and an outside diameter of 280 microns are bonded to the cylindrical wall 60 at each of the ports 64 by using biomedical grade epoxy or in some other suitable fashion . in this instance , the ports 64 may have a diameter of approximately 400 microns . the fibers just noted represent one of a large number of choices available for medical gas exchange purposes . after bonding to the cylindrical wall 60 , each hollow fiber 70 is sealed with epoxy at its free tip end 72 . the fibers 70 may assume a perpendicular relationship with the catheter 22 as seen in fig8 or they may assume some other angular relationship , for example , swept in a direction away from that of insertion into the body as illustrated in fig7 . of course , if the fibers are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the catheter 22 , the total width of the artificial lung 20 will be greater than fibers of the same length being swept back . the actual shape of the artificial lung 20 free floating in the vasculature will depend upon the angle at which the fibers are mounted to their associated manifolds 54 . their shape during insertion and removal from the body will be that of a cylinder as the fibers fold in to conform to the shape of the introduction cannula to be described . as previously mentioned , the relatively poor gas exchange performance of existing intravascular lungs has led the inventors to consider other ways of replacing oxygen flushed microporus fibers in better positions to oxygenate and decarbonate venous blood . tethering fibers to both ends of a gas delivery catheter constrains much of the surface area of the fiber to be parallel to the direction of the returning venous blood . this is not an optimal positioning for gas transfer . this has led the inventors to conceive of a diffusion based intravascular lung having the construction of the invention . in the instance of the invention , only one end of each hollow fiber 70 is sealed ( see especially fig8 ) and it is allowed to float freely in the blood stream . the attached ends of the hollow fibers open transversely into the annular space 62 between the cylindrical wall 60 and the catheter 22 which is flushed by fresh gas , notably pure oxygen , as indicated by arrow 74 entering via aperture 58 . the free fiber 70 can float so that its whole length lies transversely of the passing blood stream as indicated by an arrow 76 , a much more favorable positioning for gas exchange than provided by known devices . the incoming oxygen diffuses down the lumen of each hollow fiber 70 and then across the microporus membrane into the blood stream as represented by the arrow 76 . after carbon dioxide leaves the blood and crosses the microporus membrane by diffusion , it must then diffuse along the fiber axis until it enters the outlet conduit 26 via the annular space 62 and aperture 56 , where it is swept away by the flowing stream of excess fresh oxygen supplied from outside of the patient &# 39 ; s body . each manifold is approximately 1 cm in length and the spacing between adjacent manifold sleeves 54 along the length of the catheter 22 is approximately 1 cm . a sufficient number of manifold sleeves with hollow fibers 70 thereon are provided to define the respective gas exchange regions 40 , 42 , and 44 such that the region 40 is substantially coextensive with the inferior vena cava , the region 42 is substantially coextensive with the right ventricle , and the region 44 is substantially coextensive with the pulmonary artery 52 . in each of these regions , it may be desirable to adjust the lengths of the hollow fibers 70 to conform generally to the diameter of the particular cavity which they are placed . while fibers having a nominal length of approximately 0 . 4 cm are considered to be desirable , this length may vary considerably . as was noted previously , the artificial lung 20 is intended to be inserted and removed percutaneously without need for surgery . turn now , with particular attention , to fig4 , and 9a - 9f . insertion of the artificial lung is intended to follow the seldinger technique in which a narrow gauge needle 78 ( fig9 a ) is used to locate the lumen of the femoral vein 80 . then a guide wire 82 is passed through the finder needle 78 into the femoral vein whereupon the finder needle is removed . a flexible dilator 84 ( fig9 b ) is then passed over the guide wire 82 and into the femoral vein 80 to enlarge the entrance hole . thereupon , viewing fig9 c , an introducer sheath 86 with obturator 88 is placed over the guide wire 82 and into the vein 80 . when insertion of the artificial lung 20 into the body is desired , the obturator 88 is removed and the distal end 36 of the artificial lung 20 is inserted into the introducer sheath 86 , then advanced manually into the femoral vein 80 ( fig9 d ). once inserted into the vein , the balloon 38 is inflated ( fig9 e ). in the standard operational manner , the diameter of the balloon , while substantially larger than that of the catheter 22 and of the manifold sleeves 54 thereon , is sufficiently smaller than the diameter of the vein 80 and of the other internal cavities into which the artificial lung 20 is to advance to assure that it will not become undesirably lodged before reaching its destination . in any event , the size of the balloon can be altered by the attendant if necessary . blood flow propels the balloon 38 and its trailing appendage along and through the inferior vena cava 48 , the right ventricle 50 , and the pulmonary artery 52 ( fig9 f , 4 , and 5 ). movement of the balloon and of the artificial lung 20 is observed by fluoroscopy . if any difficulties are encountered , the device can be withdrawn to a greater or lesser extent , as necessary , by the attendant acting on the proximal end 34 of the artificial lung 20 . when the balloon 38 reaches a position such that the gas exchange region 40 is placed generally within and substantially coterminous with the inferior vena cava , the gas exchange region 42 is placed generally within and substantially coterminous with the right ventricle , and the gas exchange region 44 is placed generally within and substantially coterminous with the pulmonary artery , the proximal end 34 is suitably anchored to the skin of the patient preventing further relative movement between the lung 20 along the cavities of the body in which it is placed . subsequent removal of the lung 20 simply entails sliding it out of the femoral vessel . while removal will cause bending and possibly kinking of the hollow fibers 70 , they should not be caused to break and should be sufficiently malleable to avoid tissue damage during the extraction procedure . it was earlier mentioned that studies have offered evidence to the effect that condensation of water vapor , which is transferred across the fibers 70 from the liquid to the gas phase within the lumens of the microporous fibers , may draw blood plasma across the fibers by capillary action , thereby gradually reducing gas transfer . however , by warming the gas to the blood temperature , plasma leakage is prevented and gas transfer remains constant over an extended period of time . accordingly , it is highly desirable to employ , in association with the artificial lung 20 , a gas temperature control system as part of a computerized automated control system 90 depicted in fig1 . the algorithm for maintaining the proper gas temperature in the artificial lung 20 is shown in fig1 . the aim of the algorithm is to find and maintain an inlet gas temperature ( t maintain ) that will keep the outlet gas temperature 2 ° c . ( t min ) warmer than the blood temperature , but not more than 5 ° c . warmer ( t max ). the minimum inlet gas temperature that will damage the blood , body tissue , or artificial lung 20 is defined as t danger . the inlet gas is never to be heated above this temperature . delay is defined as the time that it takes to measure a temperature difference at an outlet gas thermometer due to a change in temperature of the inlet gas . as the algorithm begins , the gas flow is off . the gas warmer is warmed up to t maintain and then the gas flow is slowly increased until the desired gas flow is reached . in the system 90 , thermocouple transducers 92 , 94 , and 96 measure and record , respectively , t in , t out and t blood ( fig1 ). a data acquisition system 98 then sends control signals to a heater control box 100 which operates a heater element 102 . by reason of the control system 90 , a patient could be maintained on the artificial lung 20 for a duration of 12 to 24 hours using a single &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; size oxygen cylinder 104 at a gas flow rate of approximately 2 to 4 l ./ min . because the system is a closed one , transportation of the patient is made practical . in the system 90 , a mass flow controller 106 serves to maintain a constant mass flow through the artificial lung 20 . a second mass flow controller 108 connected to the oxygen cylinder 104 serves to feed oxygen into the system at a rate required to maintain a constant inlet pressure . the inlet and outlet pressures are monitored , respectively , by transducers 110 , 112 , that connect to the data acquisition system 98 and to a computer 114 . from the outlet of the catheter 22 , the gas flows past a vacuum gauge and vacuum pop - off valve 116 to prevent a vacuum strong enough to collapse the gas conduits . a co 2 absorber 118 serves to remove the co 2 from the outlet gas to be recirculated . the gas them flows through a thermoelectric cooler 120 that removes water vapor from the outlet gas . finally , the gas passes through a needle valve 122 used to regulate the flow and into a vacuum pump 124 from which it is expelled into the procedure room . the automated temperature control system described above is used to warm and cool the circulating gas . a warming loop 126 returns the gas to room temperature following its flow through the cooler 120 to reduce the energy requirement of the gas warmer , although the vacuum pump 124 utilized by the system may provide enough heat to make this unnecessary . while preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail , it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various other modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as described in the specification and defined in the appended claims .
an intravascular membrane lung is adapted for percutaneous venous insertion into a living body and comprises an elongated multi lumen catheter and elongated gas exchange members in the form of a large number of microporous fibers tethered at one end to the catheter and extending away from the catheter in all directions . the microporous fibers are in communication with the lumina of the catheter which includes one conduit for delivery of 100 % oxygen to the fibers and another conduit for flushing away carbon dioxide from the fibers . the catheter extends between a proximal end and a distal end being a leading end for insertion into the body . the distal end includes a selectively inflatable balloon having an enlarged size larger than a nominal transverse dimension of said catheter and smaller than the inner nominal dimensions of any of the body cavities into which it extends . upon insertion into the femoral vein , the blood flowing back to the natural lungs of the body propel the catheter and its attached microporous fibers through the inferior vena cava , then into and through the right ventricle , then into and through the pulmonary artery . another lumen of the catheter serves to receive a fiberoptic bundle to monitor oxygenation of the blood which has passed over the device and still another lumen is provided for sampling blood at the tip of the catheter .