Ralf Bensberg

RWTH Aachen University · Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital

Veno-venous extracorporeal lung assist (ECLA) can provide sufficient gas exchange even in most severe cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Commercially available systems are manually controlled, although an automatically controlled ECLA could allow individualized and continuous adaption to clinical requirements. Therefore, we developed a d...

Abstract The ultimate objective of university research and development projects is usually to create knowledge, but also to successfully transfer results to industry for subsequent marketing. We hypothesized that the university technology transfer requires efficient measures to improve this important step. Besides good scientific practice, foresigh...

Abstract Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a well-established technique for the treatment of different cardiac and pulmonary diseases, e.g., congenital heart disease and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Additionally, severely ill patients who cannot be weaned from the heart-lung machine directly after surgery have to be put on ECLS for furt...

This study investigates the feasibility of using bioelectrical impedance measurements to \rev{detect} the body fluid status. The multi-frequency impedance measurements were performed in combination with an animal experiment with five female pigs. For this purpose, the fluid balances of these animals, which were connected to an extracorporeal membra...

Extracorporeal lung support is effective to prevent hypoxaemia and excessive hypercapnia with respiratory acidosis in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Miniaturized veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (mECMO) and arterio-venous pumpless extracorporeal lung assist (pECLA) were compared for respiratory and haemodynamic response and ext...

Patients suffering acute lung failure depend on artificial ventilation in order to survive. In severe cases, this therapy may not be sufficient any more and long term extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) may be used as a last chance rescue therapy. Adapted from short term cardiopulmonary bypass, these machines now need an increased ability fo...

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation can achieve sufficient gas exchange in severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. A highly integrated extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (HEXMO) was developed to reduce filling volume and simplify management. Six female pigs were connected to venovenous HEXMO with a total priming volume of 125 ml for 4 hours dur...

Partial liquid ventilation (PLV) with perfluorocarbons may cause pulmonary recruitment in acute lung injury (ALI). Semi-fluorinated alkanes (SFAs) provide biochemical properties similar to perfluorocarbons. Additionally, SFAs are characterized by increased lipophilicity. Therefore, SFA-PLV may be considered for deposition of certain therapeutic dru...

Ventilation problems are common in critically ill patients with intra-abdominal hypertension. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of preserved spontaneous breathing during mechanical ventilation on hemodynamics, gas exchange, respiratory function and lung injury in experimental intra-abdominal hypertension. Twenty anesthetized pigs...

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used for most severe acute respiratory distress syndrome cases in specialized centers. Hemocompatibility of devices depends on the size and modification of blood contacting surfaces as well as blood flow rates. An interventional lung assist using arteriovenous perfusion of a low-resistance oxygenator wi...

The early phase of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by impaired respiratory mechanics, ventilation-perfusion mismatch, and severe hypoxemia. Partial ventilatory support can effectively unload the respiratory workload and improve pulmonary gas exchange with less hemodynamic compromise. The partial ventilatory support mode...

Hirudin serves as an alternative anticoagulant for extracorporeal blood circulation. Comparing anticoagulation with hirudin (2.5 or 5.0 μg/mL) and heparin (2.0 or 4.0 IU/mL) human blood was circulated in a modified “Chandler System” using PVC-tubes for 2 hours at 37°C. Activation of coagulation (thrombin-antithrombin III-complex, prothrombin fragme...

Over the last years, several observational studies have suggested that extracorporeal lung assist (ECLA) may be an important contribution to clinical algorithms for the treatment of most severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Today ECLA is used only as a rescue therapy in life threatening gas exchange disorders if maximal conventional t...

Iloprost, a prostacyclin analogue with a prolonged plasma half-life has beneficial effects in chronic pulmonary hypertension, whereas the effects in acute lung injury (ALI) are unknown. The present study was performed to evaluate the cardiopulmonary effects of iloprost in experimental ALI. ALI was induced in 18 pigs by repeated lung lavage. Animals...

We investigated whether improvement in ventilation perfusion (.V(A)/.Q) distribution during mechanical ventilation using biphasic positive airway pressure (BIPAP) with spontaneous breathing may be attributed to an effectively increased transpulmonary pressure (P(TP)) and can also be achieved by increasing P(TP) during controlled ventilation. In 12...

During invasive mechanical ventilation due to the dryness of medical gases is necessary to provide an adequate level of conditioning. The hot water humidifiers (HWH) heat the water, thus allowing the water vapor to heat and humidify the medical gases. In the common HWH there is a contact between the medical gases and the sterile water, thus increas...

Unlabelled: In acute lung injury (ALI), controlled mechanical ventilation with decelerating inspiratory flow (.V(dec)) has been suggested to improve oxygenation when compared with constant flow (.V(con)) by improving the distribution of ventilation and perfusion (.V(A)/.Q). We performed the present study to test this hypothesis in an animal model...

To compare ventilation-perfusion (V(A)/Q) distributions during improvement of oxygenation caused by high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) and pressure-controlled mechanical ventilation with high PEEP levels (CMV) in experimental acute lung injury (ALI). Prospective, controlled animal study. Animal research facility of a university hospital....

Unlabelled: It has been suggested that, in acute lung injury (ALI), spontaneous breathing activity may increase oxygenation because of an improvement of ventilation-perfusion distribution. Pressure support ventilation (PSV) is one of the assisted spontaneous breathing modes often used in critical care medicine. We sought to determine the prolonged...

It has been suggested that, in acute lung injury (ALI), spontaneous breathing activity may increase oxygenation because of an improvement of ventilation-perfusion distribution. Pressure support ventilation (PSV) is one of the assisted spontaneous breathing modes often used in critical care medicine. We sought to determine the prolonged effects of P...

One major problem in the therapy with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is the intermittent treatment of the patient. The therapy can takes up to several weeks and does not provide continuous supervision as it exists at the heart-lung machine in the operation theatre. At long term, lack of therapy optimization and individualization raises...