First steps in membrane oxygenation and prolonged extracorporeal perfusion in Duesseldorf using the Bramson membrane lung

After a shortened history of conventional closed and open heart surgery, including hypothermia by surface cooling and extracorporeal circulation, the first application of a new membrane oxygenator developed by ML Bramson with an integrated temperature exchange system and a heart-lung machine (HLM) was reported in 1972. The aim was to have an efficient oxygenating and gas exchange artificial lung that allowed prolonged perfusions in patients with cardiogenic shock or acute respiratory insufficiency. After in vitro closed recirculation studies comparing different bubble, vertical screen, and the new membrane oxygenators, the Bramson HLM was used in dog experiments before starting clinical cardiac surgery with routine interventions (closure of an atrial septal defect). The first clinically prolonged support for more than three hours after a double valve replacement in a NYHA class IV patient failed. A partial venoarterial prolonged perfusion for 42 hours and 43 minutes in a 10-year-old girl after surgical correction of a partial av canal defect and postoperative development of consistent lung edema caused by myocardial failure after an ischemic time of 43 minutes was the first successful long-term perfusion case in Europe. These first experiences with the Bramson membrane lung formed the basis, in our group, for further investigations of different perfusion routes and cannulations in animal experiments. Also, scanning electron microscopy studies could be performed with experimentally and clinically used membranes. The development of disposable membrane lung devices, for instance, Lande - Edwards, Kolobow Scimed, and General Electric Peirce membrane lungs, ameliorated and improved the use of these devices considerably. Also, BRAMSON had developed a disposable membrane lung device that had proved to be very effective in animal experiments by 1972, but, unfortunately, this device did not become commercially available.