The development of the modern oxygenator.

From 1953 when Gibbon first successfully supported a patient with extracorporeal circulation to about 1980 many different types of oxygenators were developed. Since their introduction in the early 1980s, microporous hollow fiber oxygenators with blood flow outside the fiber have become the dominant type of oxygenator in use. Their success has been due to both the ability to specify the required properties for a good oxygenator and the application of modern design tools, especially computational fluid dynamics, to the design process. The result has been the availability of many oxygenators from different manufacturers that differ to some extent in their performance but all of which provide adequate performance for successful and safe clinical use.