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New Type Of Artificial Lung Created

Posted by samzenpus on from the breath-differently dept.

cylonlover writes "Researchers have created an artificial lung that uses air as a ventilating gas instead of pure oxygen — as is the case with current man-made lungs, which require heavy tanks of oxygen that limit their portability. The prototype device was built following the natural lung's design and tiny dimensions and the researchers say it has reached efficiencies akin to the genuine organ. With a volume roughly the same as a human lung, the device could be implanted into a person and even be driven by the heart."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Great news! by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's all celebrate... with a cigar!

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    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. air exchange? by rbrausse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    TFA/TFS says that the blood stream through the lung is driven by the normal blood circulation - so far so good.

    but what about air exchange? the thing doesn't look flexible, so I think it is not possible to use the biological muscle-driven air stream. The information in the article are sparse, only "while air is fed into the gas inlet" mentions the topic of the air flow.

    this is only a first step, mechanical ventilation is still needed (and with the need of external devices this implanted lung is imo not useful, not only maintenance is harder but the patient has additionaly the danger of complications without the result of an apparatus-free life)

  3. Underwater breathing by Dthief · · Score: 4, Interesting

    interesting post on the actual website that I thought I would re-post - can you create a similar technology that mimics a gill and would allow either underwater, or both under and above water breathing. though the air/liquid exchange is still an important issue for both. might require carrying a battery powered pump

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    1. Re:Underwater breathing by pluther · · Score: 4, Informative
      It was totally factually accurate, but it didn't use dissolved oxygen like fish do, it actually split the water molecules on the fly to create enough oxygen to breathe.

      Interesting fact: More Jedi are injured due to oxygen toxicity from breathing pure oxygen at depth than by any other training accidents, including lightsaber fumbling.

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      If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
  4. Re:While cool... by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More to the point, how does one clean one of these things? Our lungs are constantly filtering out crap via mucous membrane and cilia to flush it out from the organ. Unless these things are designed to be flushed out with water through some sort of inlet/outlet hose design, I'm afraid they will have to be made external for ease of maintenance.

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