Abstract
Autoascit® had been developed to treat intractable ascites and succesfully used for the last several years. Cells and bacteria from the ascitic fluid are removed by this device and the sterilized, cell-free and concentrated ascitic fluid is reinfused into the blood stream. The device had been applied to more than 300 cases of intractable ascites with satisfactory result.
Recently a new completly automated model of Autoascit has been developed. This device is superior to the old one because of the following three point:
(I) the intermittent air driven, volumelimited pump is replaced by a roller pump with the regulator to operate the pump within safe pressure limits. The continuous flow of the fluid is helpful to prevent filter microhole to be blocked with corpuscular elements of the fluid. (2) The new device is equipped with a newly developed protein sensor to regulate the protein level of the concentrated asciric fluid at the desired level. (3) The efficiency of the filter and a concentrator has been improved.
The new device has been satisfactorily applied to 23 cases of intractable ascites. Its efficiency is almost twice that of the old one. It is expected to find wider use in the near future.
