2012 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 57-62
In order to ensure safety during blood purification by the percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS) circuit, we measured the flow rate in the side branches of a mock blood infusion/ removal circuit for different rates of blood removal and infusion; in addition, we measured the pressure in each of the three-gang three-way stopcocks installed in the shunt part of the circuit. In PCPS, the pressure in the blood removal circuit is always negative, and therefore, any error in the circuit-opening operation may lead to influx of a large amount of air. If air flows into the centrifugal pump, centrifugal force in the pump will be reduced to zero, causing the circulation to stop, or the air bubbles will be broken into finer ones and sent to all parts of the body via the blood infusion circuit. In this study, we confirmed that the positive pressure changed to negative in the three-gang three-way stopcocks when the negative pressure in the blood removal circuit was increased. This finding is expected to help in enhancing the safety of the blood purification process.
