Patent ID: 7473395

Claim:
A method to recirculate blood through an extracorporeal circuit having a withdrawal pump and an infusion pump the method comprising: a. intermittently withdrawing and infusing the blood from and to a blood flow passage in the extracorporeal circuit via a single venous access to a mammalian patient; b. applying an algorithm to maximize withdrawal rate; c. detecting a withdrawal blood vessel occlusion; d. stopping the withdrawal of blood if the occlusion occurs and relieving a vacuum caused by the occlusion by opening an shunt to a blood reservoir to allow blood in the reservoir to flow into the blood flow passage of the circuit: e. if the occlusion does not open within a predetermined time period, reversing the withdrawal pump to create flow through the blood flow passage to the occluded vessel; f. if the occlusion does not open within a second predetermined time period, infusing a volume of blood using the infusion pump; g. resuming withdrawal until the blood reservoir is filled by a predefined volume of blood; h. stopping the withdrawal; i. starting infusion of the blood from the reservoir through blood treatment modules and a heat exchanger into the blood vessel; j. applying an algorithm to maintain a predefined infusion pressure; k. when controller detects that the reservoir is empty, infusion stops and step (b) is resumed.