Total artificial lung buys 48 hours of life before double lung transplant
Northwestern surgeons used a total artificial lung (TAL) with dual blood flow and a flow-adaptive shunt to oxygenate blood after removing the patient’s infected lungs, keeping him alive for 48 hours until a donor double-lung transplant could be performed. The patient recovered with fully functioning lungs over time, suggesting TALs could be a lifesaving option for select severe ARDS cases and potentially be integrated into standard devices in the future.