Patent ID: 8246564

Claim:
A gas enrichment system having an extracorporeal circuit for enriching a bodily fluid of a patient with a gas-enriched fluid, comprising: an enclosure configured for receiving a gas-enrichment device, wherein said gas-enrichment device comprises a gas-enrichment chamber for enriching a physiologic fluid with the gas and a mixing chamber for mixing the gas-enriched physiologic fluid with the bodily fluid of the patient; a pumping assembly comprising a pump for controlling fluid flow through the extracorporeal circuit; and a controller for automatic control of gas-enrichment and extracorporeal circuit operations, wherein said system and said gas-enrichment device, when loaded into the system, provide a fluid path for the bodily fluid to circulate from the patient to the mixing chamber and back to the patient, and wherein said controller is capable of controlling the pumping assembly and the gas-enrichment device to perform an automated priming sequence to prime the gas-enrichment chamber with the physiologic fluid upon loading the gas-enrichment device, and to prime the fluid path with the bodily fluid upon receiving a priming command from the user, wherein said system is configured and programmed to build up and monitor a pressure in the extracorporeal circuit before the establishment of a predetermined fluid level in the mixing chamber during priming to verify proper loading of the circuit, wherein the pressure is higher than the one that can be built up by the establishment of the fluid level.