Various medical treatments and procedures require a patient's blood to be circulated outside the body (also referred to as an “extracorporeal bloodstream”). Micro-leaks in bloodstream circulation equipment and degassing effects from the blood may cause air bubbles to build up in the extracorporeal bloodstream during medical treatments. Re-insertion of such air bubbles into the patient can lead to fatal embolisms. To illustrate, cerebral microemboli generated during a cardiopulmonary bypass procedure may result in neurological impairment that is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after open heart surgery.
There have been numerous attempts to remove microbubbles from extracorporeal blood. While it is possible to remove larger air bubbles before the blood is re-inserted into the patient, there are challenges associated with the removal of smaller air bubbles (also referred to as “microbubbles” having a diameter in a size range of about 2.5 μm to 50 μm). Current solutions may enable partial mitigation of the air bubble removal problem (e.g., drip chambers) or may require undesired changes and interruptions in the treatments (e.g., reducing the bloodflow). Accordingly, there is a need for new techniques to efficiently and continuously remove microbubbles from extracorporeal bloodstreams in order to reduce the risk of microemboli.