The Hemobag: A New Device for Autologous Whole Blood Salvaging for Use With Any Extracorporeal Circuit

The Hemobag is a medical device developed by medical professionals with years of experience in cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery, to assist in salvaging the patient’s own whole blood in the perioperative setting.

The new device has obtained FDA approval for clinical use with any extracorporeal circuit for saving, concentrating and infusing residual blood quickly, after discontinuing extracorporeal circuit use like CPB. It is called the Hemobag. It consists of a 2 liter reservoir bag that is specially made for hemoconcentrating, doubling the use of any hemoconcentrator with the use of it’s TS3 tubing set.

After the end of CPB the Hemobag is filled by connecting the arterial cannula to its inlet port. The blood in the circuit is transfered to the bag while we chase the prime with crystalloid solutions to keep the CPB circuit ready to use in case a return to bypass becomes necessary.

After this, the blood in the bag is hemoconcentrated by the same ultrafilter attached to the circuit. Instead of just the red cells, as occurs with cell savers, we are able to save red cells, plasma (coagulation factors and albumin) and platelets.

The concentrated whole blood is then reinfused to the patient. This helps to avoid the need for the transfusion of homologous blood.

The Hemobag process consists of 3 simple steps:

Step 1:

Fill at surgical field via the extracorporeal circuits arterial line connected to the Hemobag, then chase forward the circuit’s blood volume with crystalloid displacement.

Step 2:

Apply the Hemobag off the field to the closed hemoconcentration TS3 Tubing Set “looped circuit” via a spare roller pump not in use. Concentrate to a fine, rich, autologous whole blood product with harmful wastes and excess water removed.

Step 3:

With the lines clamped and capped, the Hemobag is now ready for labeling and end-product infusion.

Indications:
Cardiopulmonary bypass
ECMO support techniques
Ventricular assist device procedures
Liver transplantation/bypass
Isolated limb perfusions
Heparinized cardiotomy reservoirs
Jehovah’s Witness patients

Whole Blood Autotransfusion has been made easier and less expensive with the introduction of this new device.