Patent ID: 11964089
Assignee: NIKKISO COMPANY LIMITED
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A blood purification apparatus that includes
a blood circuit including an arterial blood circuit and a venous blood circuit and having a flow route that allows a patient's blood to extracorporeally circulate from a distal end of the arterial blood circuit to a distal end of the venous blood circuit;
a blood purifier connected to a proximal end of the arterial blood circuit and to a proximal end of the venous blood circuit and that purifies the patient's blood flowing through the blood circuit;
an air-trap chamber connected to the blood circuit and that traps bubbles contained in liquid flowing in the flow route of the blood circuit; and
a blood pump provided to the arterial blood circuit and being capable of delivering the liquid within the blood circuit,
the blood purification apparatus comprising:
an upstream bubble-detecting unit attached to a position of the blood circuit on an upstream side with respect to the air-trap chamber and that detects bubbles contained in the liquid flowing in the blood circuit; and
a control unit that upon detection of any bubbles by the upstream bubble-detecting unit reduces a flow rate of the liquid flowing into the air-trap chamber by driving the blood pump at a lower speed than the blood pump was driven before the bubbles were detected;
wherein a distance between the upstream bubble-detecting unit and the air-trap chamber is set based on the flow rate of the blood circuit and an inside diameter of a tube forming the blood circuit.