Fully constrained soft shell reservoir

摘要

A fully constrained soft shell reservoir 12 uses a hard shell reservoir lined with a flexible liner 16 sealed to the hard shell reservoir along its top. Both the blood inlet 22 and the blood outlet 24 are placed in the bottom of the hard shell reservoir underneath the liner. The liner acts as a soft shell reservoir inside the hard shell reservoir, and thereby combines the advantages of both types of reservoirs. By enclosing the hard shell reservoir and applying a vacuum above the liner, assisted venous return can be accomplished. The inventive construction lends itself readily to integration of a cardiotomy reservoir with the venous reservoir.