New venous drip and level chamber to protect the formation of air micro-bubbles

Abstract

When using the conventional venous drip and level chamber in which blood drips from the upper side, blood level rises with the duration of hemodialysis. The rise in blood level is caused by the production and outflow of air micro-bubbles. The outflow volume was estimated by means of plasma circuit to be about 3.5ml per 2 hours.
On the other hand, when the inflow site of the chamber was put into the blood, the rise in blood level and production and outflow of air micro-bubbles were not observed. We concluded that use of the venous drip and level chamber was most effective when the inflow site was put into the blood.