MEDICAL SCIENCES
Every time Hemodialysis is Performed, Air Bubbles are Injected into the Patient During haemodialysis treatment, air bubbles may enter the patient’s blood circulation from the haemodialysis circuit, resulting in air embolies in many organs. Our novel capped needle has been shown to reduce the residual volume of air bubbles entering the blood circulation. At the moment, we are seeking manufacturers for this invention. Kazuhiko Shibata, Researcher, Artisan Lab Co., Ltd. and Yokohama City University school of medicine
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t the start of haemodialysis, we often find air bubbles remaining in the blood circuit. Nevertheless, these air bubbles flow into the patient's body soon after haemodialysis is started. This is a common occurrence, and even though the medical staff would like to eliminate all air bubbles, they cannot solve the problem through effort alone. You might think that such a thing would only be bad for dialysis patients. That is true. The bad news is that some reports have indicated that air bubbles in the blood circuit are broken up into smaller bubbles by turbulence in the vascular access after the start of the haemodialysis. Some of these broken bubbles become air emboli in the lungs resulting in ischemic damage and pulmonary hypertension. To make matters worse, some air bubbles pass through the pulmonary vascular bed and migrate into the systemic circulation. In more serious cases, when there is the presence of an intracardiac shunt, most frequently caused by a patent foramen ovale, this may allow air bubbles to enter the body’s circulation directly. A patent foramen ovale is present in more than 20 per cent of haemodialysis patients. The most shocking and important study to date was published by Forsberg and colleagues in 2019.The findings of autopsy on five patients who
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A SI A N H O S P I T A L & H EA LT HCA R E M A N AGE M E N T
IS S UE - 58, 2022
