Researchers create artificial lung to support pre-term babies in distress/

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An international team led by current and former McMaster University researchers has developed an artificial lung to support pre-term and other newborn babies in respiratory distress.

The group has proven the concept using a live piglet, a major step along the route toward approval for use in humans, where the portable device could save many lives and prevent catastrophic damage by taking up some of the placenta’s role in oxygenating the blood until babies are able to breathe independently.

The device, designed to be connected to a newborn’s umbilical cord, uses the existing power of the heart to drive blood through channels of a fine membrane whose structure resembles the lining of the lungs, allowing the release of carbon dioxide and the uptake of oxygen while protecting the blood from outside infection.

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