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

Claim 4:
5. A method of trapping bubbles in a blood purification apparatus, the apparatus including
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;
a blood pump provided to the arterial blood circuit and being capable of delivering the liquid within the blood circuit, and
an upstream bubble-detecting unit attached to a position of the blood circuit on an upstream side with respect to the air-trap chamber;
wherein the method comprises:
detecting bubbles contained in the liquid flowing in the blood circuit,
reducing a flow rate of the liquid flowing into the air-trap chamber at the detection of any bubbles by an upstream bubble-detecting unit,
lowering a driving speed of the blood pump when the bubbles are detected by the upstream bubble-detecting unit; and
setting 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.