Experimental Quantification of Hemolysis Through ECMO System Oxygenator

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is the final attempt to save a patients’ life. Before 2020, the administration of ECMO was primarily used for the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome or other severe cardio-pulmonary conditions, but has recently been used to treat COVID-19 patients. It has been argued that hemolysis is an important issue when using this system, however the details are unknown. The aim of this study is to quantify hemolysis induction through the oxygenation module. An experimental setup was created by scaling up the geometry of the membrane to conduct particle image velocimetry on the system. Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids were used, both of which were Reynolds number-matched to the clinical system. Two-dimensional vector fields were obtained for several planes of the device over a range of flow rates. Upon calculation of the viscous shear stress from the velocity fields, hemolysis induction predictions were calculated considering a model for blood damage. For the Newtonian experiments, an early onset of hemolysis was detected only after considering long exposure times. Results from the non-Newtonian experiments also lead to small levels of induced hemolysis suggesting that the oxygenator module causes very little to no blood damage.