ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,311,088, issued on May 27, was assigned to NIPRO Corp. (Osaka, Japan).
"Artificial lung device" was invented by Shunsuke Kikumoto (Muko, Japan), Naoaki Yasumura (Kusatsu, Japan) and Rui Minohara (Kusatsu, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An artificial lung device includes: a housing which is formed in a tubular shape including both end portions closed, includes a blood inflow port and a blood outflow port, and is arranged such that a center axis of the housing is directed in a lateral direction; a hollow fiber body (gas exchanger) which is arranged in the housing and performs gas exchange with respect to blood while the blood flows f...