This is basically a specialized version of ECMO, which is used for humans in certain situations when the heart needs to rest and can be stopped completely for weeks. It’s basically a heart-lung machine (although in this case the lamb heart is beating.) The general problem is that a significant amount of blood-thinner has to be added to keep the blood from clotting among the tubing or artificial blood oxygenator, and this hugely increases the risk to the patient of stroke.
I’m curious if the lambs died of cerebral hemorrhage, like most humans would after 4 weeks on ECMO. If that’s the case, then this still has a very limited application and is especially risky in light of the target patients - babies. I suppose it’s mainly a materials problem. Once we find good materials that blood won’t clot on, and isn’t prone to bacterial growth, this tech will jump ahead by leaps and bounds.
