Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The artificial lung is a life-support technology and can be used when pulmonary failure occurs and the lung cannot maintain adequate oxygen supply for human organs. In view of the long-term development, the artificial lung can be implanted into the human body to partially or completely replace the lung permanently. At present, studies addressing the artificial lung are focused on gas exchange capacity and biocompatibility to provide more reliable means to rescue the lives of patients through the improvement of membrane materials, optimizing design as well as experimental and clinical evaluations.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the literatures on the artificial lung membrane materials through Scopus database and CNKI database, and to understand the status and trends of the artificial lung membrane materials.
METHODS: Retrieval was performed for the literature about the artificial lung membrane materials, using key words of artificial lung, membrane materials, biocompatibility, membrane oxygenator, membrane-type artificial lung, hollow fiber, polymer materials between 2002-01 and 2011-12 in Scopus database and CNKI database.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The structure of the artificial lung membrane has been developed from drum, plate folding to microporous hollow fiber membrane which is widely used now. The hollow fiber materials are mainly polymers with high performance of fiber formation, such as polypropylene and poly(ether sulfone). Membrane-type artificial lung can improve gas exchange and biocompatibility. With the development of new technologies and materials, the advance of basic research as well as the accumulation of clinical experience, the artificial lung is bound to initiate new insight in the treatment of severe respiratory disorders. A total of 172 papers on the artificial lung membrane materials published between 2002-01 and 2011-12 were retrieved in Scopus database, in which most of papers were published as original articles. The overall number of literature is more stable, and there is no significant increasing. Artificial Organs published most papers in this field.