This obviously is promising to assist those waiting for transplants. I would hope they look at it as a longer solution for those of us with COPD. To have a device that simple it could provide a near normal day to day existance compared with bulky concentrators.
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Lung patients' on-the-move oxygen lifeline: Portable bionic lung 'breathes' oxygen directly into the bloodsteam
A portable bionic lung that 'breathes' oxygen directly into the bloodstream is being offered to critically ill patients – handing them valuable extra time while they wait for a transplant.
The Novalung is attached via tubes to the leg or directly to the heart, bypassing the patient's own respiratory system.
It removes carbon dioxide from the blood and re-oxygenates it. The machine can remain 'plumbed in' to the patient indefinitely, during which time he or she will still be able to inhale and exhale normally.
Unlike other oxygenators, the Novalung uses the patient's own blood pressure rather than an external 'engine'.
At this point patients still have to stay on the ICU but the device is small enough – about the size and weight of a large book – to allow them to walk and carry out many normal daily activities while it is attached.
The device is being used by transplant experts at Harefield Hospital in north-west London, and has so far saved the lives of 12 patients needing new lungs.
Until recently, doctors had few options for those desperately sick patients who were waiting for a transplant because of donor shortages.
Andre Simon, director of transplantation at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, who has brought the device to the UK from Germany where he used to work, said: 'This is a lifeline for the very sick.
'Not long ago we would put patients in intensive care on respirators, but they didn't do very well and you only bought them a few days. Often it wasn't enough.'
In contrast, the Novalung has been able to keep patients alive for months. A lung transplant involves removing and replacing a diseased lung with a healthy organ from a donor – usually a person who has died.
The operation is not carried out frequently in the UK, mainly due to the lack of available donors. From April 2013 to April 2014, 179 lung transplants were performed in England. As of June this year, there were 332 patients waiting for the operation.
Those in need of donor lungs have advanced lung disease and are failing to respond to other treatment. They have a life expectancy of less than three years.
Conditions that can lead to this state include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis; cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that causes the lungs and digestive system to become clogged up with a thick, sticky mucus; and pulmonary hypertension – high blood pressure inside the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs.
Vanessa Bradley, from Twickenham, South-West London, is alive today thanks to Novalung. She was facing a bleak prognosis until Mr Simon offered her a lifeline two years ago.
The 43-year-old suffers from pulmonary hypertension, which affects 5,000 people in the UK. She was told that due to heart problems caused by her condition, she would struggle to survive a double-lung transplant, and that the chances of getting a simultaneous heart and double-lung transplant were very slim. Only eight such transplants had been performed in the UK in the previous year.
The Novalung was inserted in August 2013 and she was well enough to receive donor lungs one month later. In February last year, six months after being admitted to hospital, she went home, and is now back at work full-time.
'I feel proud that I was a guinea pig,' she said. 'Hopefully other people with my condition don't have to wait for combined heart-and-lung transplants – perhaps it can save more lives.'
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