Doctors keep patients alive for two days using ‘artificial lungs’
Novel artificial lungs could help people whose lungs no longer survive long enough to get an organ transplant
new lungs (left) which were kept alive after keeping a patient alive with artificial lungs that were implanted in his body, are seen next to his old lungs (Correct).
Thoracic surgeon Ankit Bharat was working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2023 when he was assigned to help a 33-year-old influenza patient who was on the verge of death. Bharat recalls that the man got a secondary infection from one of the “most dangerous insects” in the hospital, pseudomonas, And he was put on ventilator. The patient’s lungs were filling with fluid and pus, his kidneys were failing and his heart was “barely” functioning, Bharat says. “He was actively dying.”
Then the patient’s heart stopped. “We took him back—but it was very clear that we had to do something immediately,” says Bharat.
The sick man needed a double lung transplant, but there was a problem: He was so sick that it was not possible for Bharat and his colleagues to attempt the operation. But Bharat knew that without a working set of lungs, the patient would die. He was already on a life-support system called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, to help him breathe, Bharat says, but that treatment doesn’t work without lungs in the patient’s body.
On supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism Subscribing By purchasing a subscription, you are helping ensure a future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
So Bharat and his team came up with a plan: They would create “artificial lungs” that could help pump blood from the right side of a patient’s heart to the left side of the organ, oxygenate it and send it to the rest of the body.
Chitaru Kurihara (left) and Ankit Bharat (Correct) Operate on the patient, remove his damaged lungs and attach artificial lungs.
Bharat compared the new system to adding a bridge to a highway – like interstate traffic, blood travels from the right side of the heart to the lungs, then to the left side of the heart and then to the rest of the body. Without lungs, the highway reaches a dead end. Bharat’s artificial lungs virtually bridged this gap – providing circulating and oxygenated blood in place of the patient’s lungs. And to prevent “traffic jams” on that bridge, Bharat’s team also created an “exit” road for blood to return to the right side of the heart.
The system kept the patient alive for two days, allowing him to begin recovering from the infection. “It was almost like a curse or something that had just been lifted,” Bharat says, “and suddenly everything started falling into place.”
The patient was placed on the list of lung transplant candidates — and a few hours later, he had an offer. The team took it, and after a few additional weeks of recovery in the hospital, the man was released, weak but alive.
Now, more than two years later, “Well, he’s doing great,” says Bharat.
The system is similar to Bharat’s artificial lungs. described by doctors Earlier, says Matthew Hartwig, a professor of surgery at Duke University, who was not involved in the study. But he says Bharat’s method offers “a new approach” to “the same problem that everyone else is facing” in the field. Bharat’s approach is described in a paper published Thursday in the journal Med.
Bharat hopes his lung system can be used as a “nuclear alternative” in other hospitals to save critically ill patients. “We described in that paper all the lessons we learned, how we came up with every single configuration, what the reasoning behind it was, and anyone can replicate it,” he says. “There’s nothing like ownership in it.”
And he hopes it could ultimately mean there will be more success stories like the one he helped save in 2023. “Even at the end of the day, if we save one additional life, we will be happy with that,” says Bharat.
It’s time to stand up for science
If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. scientific American He has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most important moment in that two-century history.
i have been one scientific American I’ve been a member since I was 12, and it’s helped shape the way I see the world. Science Always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does the same for you.
if you agree scientific AmericanYou help ensure that our coverage focuses on meaningful research and discovery; We have the resources to report on decisions that put laboratories across America at risk; And that we support both emerging and working scientists at a time when the value of science is too often recognised.
In return, you get the news you need, Captivating podcasts, great infographics, Don’t miss the newsletter, be sure to watch the video, Challenging games, and the best writing and reporting from the world of science. you can even Gift a membership to someone.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you will support us in that mission.
