A fail-safe protective system against blood loss to the environment for extracorporeal circuits

Extracorporeal circuits are used in artificial organs for blood treatment such as hemodialysis (HD), hemofiltration, plasmafiltration and ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation). A malfunction of the circuit may cause blood loss to the enviromnent. Safety standards therefore require protective systems which detect and prevent such blood losses. An accepted method is the use of pressure monitors. The paper describes a fail-safe presure monitor based on a simple algorithm utilizing the pulsations of roller pumps.