Spallation of Small Particles From Peristaltic Pump Tube Segments

In most extracorporeal filtration devices such as hemodialysis a peristaltic pump is used to circulate blood. Pump function requires the repeated compression of an elastomeric tube from which particles may be shed into the circulatory system, a process called spallation. Earlier studies are likely to have missed the large number of small particles (<2 µm in diameter) that appear. The present study uses more modern equipment that detects and sizes particles down to 0.6 µm. As polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubing is commonly used for this process, a series of studies was conducted on three different types to study its spallation characteristics, along with a co-extruded PVC/polyurethane tubing known for its enhanced biocompatibility properties. For all types of PVC tubes, the average size of the spallated particles was 0.83 ± 0.03 µm; for the PVC/polyurethane tubing the average size of the spallated particles was approximately twice that reported for PVC tubing. For PVC tubes with equal inner diameter, those with less plasticizer released fewer particles; for tubes with the same Shore hardness, tubes with larger internal diameters released fewer particles. It was also shown that PVC tubes operating at a slower flow rate does not reduce the total number of particles released per volume pumped. The total number of particles spallated from the PVC/polyurethane tubing was 10 times lower than from the lowest spallating PVC tubing.