Artificial lung till transplant

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Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2014/11/28/Now-Artificial-Lung-Till-Patient-gets-Transplant/article2544472.ece

Lung-i dance. Bahrain-born Fatima Ahmed may not be able to manage that with her own two failed lungs, but she can certainly give it a shot with the artificial one that doctors have attached - between her legs.
A couple of years ago, doctors gave patients with heart failure external pumps (LVAD/HVAD) to keep them going till a suitable heart for transplant became available. Now, they’ve managed the same for when your lungs give out. Surgeons at Global Hospitals used a device called the Novalung to ‘breathe’ for a 64-year-old Bahraini woman, who underwent a lung transplant two years ago.
An artificial, membrane-filled device that requires no external power source, the Novalung takes blood from the femoral artery, removes Carbon dioxide, adds oxygen and returns the blood to the femoral vein. “It’s tough enough to find a suitable lung to transplant for when a patient needs it, but when they’re as sick as Fatima Mohammed Ahmed was, it’s out of the question. Her protein levels were low and her muscles were weak, she was morbidly obese and she was on a ventilator for two weeks,” recounted Dr Rahun Chandola, Senior Consultant Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeon. She had undergone a transplant two years ago, but they deteriorated because of a fungal condition that led to Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (BOS).
Running out of time and options, they had a stroke of luck while looking for an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) - the gold standard to keep people with bad hearts and lungs oxygenated, before this.
“The same company that stocks ECMOs in Delhi, had just kept one piece of this Novalung. They mentioned it to us and we thought why not?”, he said. The longest anyone had lived on it was 5 months, in Germany, but even a day longer was a blessing at this stage.

Two weeks after she had the surgery, her condition has improved well enough to let her walk, “We’re working on getting her vitals up so that as and when a suitable lung is available for transplant, we’ll be able to operate on her,” said Dr Vijil Rahulan, Senior Consultant Pulmologist. Though the device, that looks like a small Geiger counter is kept on a walker in front of her, all it needs is a membrane replacement every three weeks or so.
As Chennai is the hub for lung transplants, one of the most complicated of the lot, keeping people alive with bridge devices like this are vital. Especially because every year 1 lakh Indians develop end-stage lung disease, of which 10 per cent need transplants. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed. All we know is that if we hadn’t done this, she wouldn’t have made it this far,” said Chandola.

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