The DBT Dynamic Bubble Trap is the most innovative and effective technology to significantly reduce the number of unavoidable air microbubbles in the arterial line of the extracorporeal circuit. (ECC). The influence of microbubbles on the neuropsychological outcome of patients yet cannot be examined isolated from corpuscular microparticles. Anyhow, larger numbers of microbubbles are proven to be negative for patient outcome. It is very unlikely that corpuscular particles can pass prebypass filters, reservoirs filters, and modern high performance oxygenators. Therefore it can be concluded that arterial filters (AF) are used primarily for air particle reduction.
The DBT can be used additionally to the AF, but more and more users are replacing the filter by the DBT. The use of arterial filters is debatable and has to be reconsidered as the DBT yields significantly higher air microbubble removal than AF.
The DBT enhances the performance and safety of the perfusion at lower cost!
Therefore more and more hospitals are using the DBT as a standard.