Preclinical biocompatibility study of ultra-compact durable ECMO system in chronic animal experiments for 2 weeks

Although the innovation has come in ECMO field, many problems remain unresolved. One of the main problems is about long-term durability and biocompatibility. Another is the system's size, weight, and its complicated equipment. For the former problem, we have previously developed ECMO system which consists of a tiny, hydrodynamically levitated centrifugal pump (BIOFLOAT-NCVC), a membrane oxygenator with hollow polyolefin fibers (BIOCUBE-NCVC), and the circuit treated with a heparin-bonding material (T-NCVC coating), and reported three cases of animal experiments for 30-day heparin-free drive. For the latter problem, we have integrated these elements to the compact system with sensors of temperature, pressure, and SvO₂, and blood flow. Its installation area is 595 cm², weighs 8.9 kg with attachable oxygen cassette, and battery which could last an hour at least. To evaluate the biocompatibility of this system, this ECMO was installed in four goats. Scheduled duration was 14 days. Heparin was continuously infused to control their ACT between 150 and 200 s except one 2-week experiment without systemic heparinization. All of the four goats survived till the scheduled termination. Function of the pump and the oxygenator during ECMO was stable. No obvious adverse events were observed. All lab data were of normal range after 1 week. Small infarctions were found at kidneys, but they were not clinically significant. No thrombus was found in the pump system. The oxygenators were extremely clean except a little thrombus formation; while, the heparin-free examination revealed acceptable cleanliness. The present study revealed good anti-thrombogenicity of this ultra-compact durable ECMO system with heparinization. Our system encourages awake and extubated management, rehabilitation, inter-hospital transfer, and prehospital initiation of ECMO.