Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, with the support of a $3.4 million National Institutes of Health grant, are working to develop an artificial lung to serve as a bridge to transplant or recovery in patients with acute and chronic lung failure.
The project aims to develop a compact respiratory assist device called the Paracorporeal Ambulatory Assist Lung (PAAL), a wearable, fully integrated blood pump and lung designed to provide longer-term respiratory support up to three months while maintaining excellent blood compatibility.
This is in sharp contrast to current long-term breathing support modalities, which include extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (EMCO)—a cardiac and respiratory technique in which blood is drained from the body, oxygenated, and the returned to the bloodstream, but can significantly limit a patient’s mobility and involve unwieldy equipment.
The PAAL device will complement recent efforts by the University of Maryland (which developed a wearable artificial pump-lung) by potentially improving the efficiency of the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide and increasing biocompatibility, explained principal investigator William J. Federspiel, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and director of the Medical Devices Laboratory within the Pitt-UPMC McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “Our wearable lung will be designed to get patients up and moving within the hospital setting, which is important for both patient recovery and improving a patient’s status prior to a lung transplant,” he said.
