Provided herein are tubular membrane filter elements, tangential flow filtration systems comprising such filter elements and methods of using such filter elements and filtration systems.

A blood processing apparatus includes an optional heat exchanger and a gas exchanger disposed within a housing. In some instances, the gas exchanger can include a screen filter spirally wound into the gas exchanger such that blood passing through the gas exchanger passes through the screen filter and is filtered by the spirally wound screen filter a plurality of times.

A cartridge is provided for dialysis or other blood processing therapy. In the cartridge, fibers may be substantially uniformly distributed near a midplane, but near an end, in the inter fiber space, there may be void flow channels, which may cause fluid flow in the inter fiber space to transition within a short region to uniform flow with minimal stagnation zones. Void flow channels may be be radially oriented, introducing fluid from the outer circumference, or axially oriented, introducing fluid along the axial direction through passageways through the potting material. The fluid flow in the inter fiber space may be perpendicular to the fibers, or radial with respect to a cartridge longitudinal axis. The cartridge may have blood flow in the inter fiber space, and flow of dialysate or ultrafiltrate in the lumens of the fibers, or the opposite situation.

A hollow fiber membrane module includes an inner case 120 with a one-end-side outer peripheral surface 121, the width of which is constant from one end side toward the other end side, and an other-end-side outer peripheral surface 122 which gradually widens from one end side toward the other end side, and in the inner case 120, a hollow portion that opens to the other end side is provided on an inside of the other-end-side outer peripheral surface 122 and a plurality of windows 122a that allow communication between the hollow portion and the annular gap are provided, and in the outer case 110, a communication hole 111a that communicates between the annular gap and the outside of the outer case 110 is provided at a position that is closer to the one end side.

A blood processing apparatus includes an optional heat exchanger and a gas exchanger disposed within a housing. In some instances, the gas exchanger can include a screen filter spirally wound into the gas exchanger such that blood passing through the gas exchanger passes through the screen filter and is filtered by the spirally wound screen filter a plurality of times.

Provided herein are tubular membrane filter elements, tangential flow filtration systems comprising such filter elements and methods of using such filter elements and filtration systems.

A hollow fibre membrane having a coiled, a hemihelix, a helical or an undulated native form, in which the membrane can be stretched by up to 4-times its original length with no plastic deformation, and wherein the native form of the membrane is produced by the asymmetric flow of liquid polymer through an opening of a die or nozzle.

A hollow-fiber membrane module of the invention includes: a cylindrical case having a first end and a second end in a height direction thereof; a hollow-fiber membrane bundle being housed in the cylindrical case and having a plurality of hollow-fiber membranes each closed at an end part on the first end side and opened at an end part on the second end side; a first binding part binding the end parts on the first end side of the hollow-fiber membranes; a first flow channel guiding fluid to pass through the first binding part from the first end side to the second end side of the first binding part; and a channel material directing, at a terminal on the second end side of the first flow channel, a flow of at least a part of the fluid flowing out from the terminal on the second end side of the first flow channel toward a direction intersecting the height direction of the cylindrical case.

A sheet-shaped hollow fiber membrane module includes a casing having a flat shape, the casing including a supply port and a discharge port, and a plurality of hollow fiber membranes accommodated inside the casing. The casing includes a plurality of the supply ports on one main surface of the casing and a plurality of the discharge ports on the other main surface of the casing, at least one of the plurality of the supply ports is closable, and at least one of the plurality of the discharge ports is closable. Each of the plurality of hollow fiber membranes includes a first opening at one end of the hollow fiber membrane and a second opening at the other end of the hollow fiber membrane, and the first opening and the second opening communicate with an outside of the casing and do not communicate with an inside of the casing.

A device for mass transfer between blood and a transfer medium, in particular a gas/gas mixture, includes a chamber through which blood can flow and in which a plurality of mass-permeable hollow fibers of at least one hollow fiber mat, in which the hollow fibers are held at a spacing by way of warp threads, are disposed in the form of a wound or folded hollow fiber package, wherein a transfer medium is able to flow through, and blood is able to flow around, the hollow fibers, and wherein the density of hollow fibers varies locally in the hollow fiber package in the cross-section perpendicular to length of the hollow fibers. Hollow fiber packages and methods of manufacturing thereof are provided in which the hollow fibers are held at a spacing by warp threads, in which the spacing between adjoining hollow fibers is locally increased, in particular compared to a predominantly equidistant spacing between the hollow fibers.