The requests for help are diverse and varied, and most of them are from patients and their families. Many of them are asking about other technologies, such as artificial lungs and artificial kidneys, and some are even asking about artificial intestines and artificial brains.
Regarding this, Wu Hai and the others were very speechless. If everything in a person was replaced, would that person still be a human?
In fact, the artificial lung project was carried out relatively early, and it was started at the same time as the intelligent bionic electronic eye and intelligent bionic artificial heart projects.
They all belong to the sub-projects of Wu Hao’s smart organ bionics project. This smart organ bionics project has a resounding codename, Five Elements.
The Five Elements is the basic way that our ancients understood the world. In their simple values, the world is composed of five elements, namely the Five Elements, which are metal, wood, water, fire and earth.
In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the five elements also represent the five organs in the body, namely the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys. The center governs fire, the liver governs wood, the spleen governs earth, the kidneys govern water, and the lungs govern metal.
This code name, as the name suggests, is to develop artificial bionic organs that can replace the five internal organs. Of course, it is not limited to the five internal organs. There are many organs in the human body, and the five elements are just a general term.
The development of the artificial lung project has been continuing. Initially, everyone thought that this project should go smoothly. It would just be a matter of miniaturizing the ECMO and placing it in the patient's chest.
However, after in-depth research and experiments, we found that this project is very difficult. The first is the issue of miniaturization. How to miniaturize such a large ECMO device and install it into the patient's lungs. In addition to the skin in the human body, the lungs should be
It is the largest organ, accounting for half of the entire torso space, and there are two more. It can be said to be one of the most important core organs in the body.
Although there is a very large space in the chest, it cannot accommodate an ECMO. And miniaturization is not as simple as reducing the volume proportionally. We must consider body adaptation issues and weight relationships. The human body is very aware of excess weight.
, so the weight of the miniaturized artificial lung must be controlled to be similar to the original lung, and cannot exceed too much.
In addition, such a device has issues with its driving energy, reliability and safety of the device's operation, as well as interference and rejection issues in the body, etc.
After all, if such a large device is put in, will the human body be able to withstand it? Will there be any infection problems for a long time? In addition, this device needs to be connected to the active veins and respiratory tract. Is this connection safe and reliable?
Wu Hao's goal is to develop a truly intelligent bionic artificial lung that can completely replace the patient's lung function. In other words, all the patient's lungs will be removed, and then an intelligent bionic device will be installed in the empty chest cavity.
Artificial lungs.
Such an operation is very difficult, even more difficult than a heart transplant. It also carries great risks, because the lungs are the most susceptible organ to infection. They are directly connected to the outside world, and all the air the human body breathes enters the lungs.
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It also requires the patient to be able to breathe independently without affecting other organs or causing other additional effects on the human body, etc.
It is precisely because of these problems that the progress of this project has been relatively slow. Even though the smart bionic electronic prosthetic eye, the smart bionic artificial heart, and even the bionic artificial kidney have been released, there is still no news about the smart bionic artificial lung.
Although Zou Xiaodong doesn't pay much attention to these scientific research projects, he is still more concerned about this project. After all, this is a life-saving technology that can save a life at a critical time. Everyone has friends and everyone has relatives.
, this thing cannot be said well.
What's more, Zou Xiaodong's mother is in poor health and suffers from asthma, which gets worse in winter. Although she is rich now, Zou Xiaodong bought a luxurious villa on Nanhai Island and sent his parents there for the winter, so as to avoid and resolve his mother's problems.
The condition worsens.
But he also knew that as his mother's age increased, her condition would only get worse, so he had been paying close attention to this project, and that's why he asked.
Of course Wu Hao knew this, so he was not surprised by Zou Xiaodong's question. Moreover, it was about his mother, so Wu Hao did not tease him, but answered him: "The project is progressing relatively smoothly. The engineering prototype has been developed.
Out.
The shape is similar to that of a real lung, and it is also divided into left and right halves. The outside is attached with a special skin-friendly silicone material, which can reduce irritation to the human body. Moreover, this material is stable, not easy to decompose and age, and is suitable for long-term use.
Just like real lungs, we also designed and developed two halves of lungs for this artificial lung. They have independent operating functions, complement each other, and serve as backup for each other.
That is to say, we placed a small ECMO on both left and right sides.
In this way, even if one of them has a problem, the other one will work normally. It will also actively increase the power to provide more than 80% of the patient's blood oxygen and maintain the basic physiological health of the human body.
In this way, the patient will have enough time to rush to the hospital or corresponding institution for corresponding treatment.
In addition, in the energy supply part, we have also installed our latest super solid-state batteries. Super solid-state batteries are installed on both left and right lungs, three on each side, two of which are main batteries and one is a backup emergency battery.
Battery.
In this way, even if one or two batteries have problems, the other batteries can still keep the device functioning normally.
Even if all four main batteries have problems, or the power is exhausted, the two backup emergency batteries can provide the patient with about four to six hours.
With this time, the patient can easily find a charging source or rush to the corresponding hospital for treatment.
In addition, we have designed a contraction air bag on each side of the smart bionic artificial lung. This air bag is used to store air for human breathing, and can drive the chest cavity to contract and maintain normal human physiological indicators.
In other words, after the patient is implanted with this smart bionic artificial lung, neither the human body's physiological response nor his daily life will be affected, and he can live like a normal person. Even from the outside, the patient is no different from a normal person.
Different, this can also greatly protect the patient's privacy, maintain the patient's self-esteem, and ensure the patient's quality of life."
Speaking of this, Wu Hao smiled and said: "There is also good news for these patients who have been implanted with intelligent bionic artificial lungs, that is, they no longer have to worry about hypoxia and altitude sickness when going to plateaus.