Information on Artificial Lungs in People

Artificial lungs are machines that help a patient breathe. Some devices have both heart and lung functions built in to help the patient both oxygenate the blood and circulate it within the body.

Identification

• The first, portable artificial lung was successfully implanted within Ward Forsyth at the University of Maryland Medical Center in April 2009 while he was waiting for a lung transplant. Other devices include ECMO devices and ventilators to help respiration.

Features

• The portable artificial lung is implanted in his chest, where blood receives oxygen and discards carbon dioxide, just like normal lung tissue, and has only one tube coming out of the chest. ECMO units have a tube connected to a vein and another tube connected to an artery. Ventilators enter through the mouth or throat.

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, or ECMO, is a heart/lung device that acts like both a heart and lung, assisting the patient with blood circulation and adjusting to the patient's heart rate and respiration. It artificially extracts oxygen from the air and replaces the carbon dioxide in the blood with oxygen.

Ventilator

• Ventilators are artificial lungs that pump air into the lungs through a tube leading to the lungs through the mouth and windpipe.

History

• The first artificial respiration devices were bellows, also used to bring air to fires, in use from the 1780s to the 1830s. From the 1830s to the early 20th century, hand-operated bellows attached to a box, where the patient would lie sealed off from the outside air. This led to the creation of the iron lung. Modern ventilators replaced iron lungs of the past.