Extensive variables cause misleading results. The indices used in this paper provide a constant, thereby making accurate comparisons possible. Patient etiologies are normalized. Mr. Fried's group has studied virtually every oxygenator available nationally including two well known models which were left out of the paper. Many other well known competitors are in the mid-300's.
Oxygenated blood comes out the other end.
Shunting is the degree to which venous blood goes into an oxygenator and does not participate in the gas exchange process. In other words, some blood remains as venous blood as it exits the oxygenator. When comparing oxygenators, the Vision has the lowest shunt of the devices studied. This demonstrates that Vision's geometry and design, and the resulting blood and gas flows, provide higher O 2 transfer efficiency without a lot of additional prime volume. According to this group, oxygen transfer and reserve capacity are considered to be the most important attributes of an oxygenator.