ABSTRACT
A variety of extracorporeal devices has been developed. Perhaps, the best known are blood oxygenators, which are used in such procedures as open heart surgery, and hemodialysis, which replaces the function of failed kidneys. Other examples include aquapheresis, for removing excess water from the body; hemoperfusion, wherein a bed of activated carbon particles is used for cleansing blood of toxic materials; plasmapheresis,† to separate erythrocytes from plasma as a ˜rst step in the subsequent processing of the plasma; immobilized enzyme reactors, to rid the body of a particular substance or to replace lost liver function; and af¢nity columns to remove materials such as antibodies that attack the body’s own cells as in autoimmune diseases.
