A motor integrated regenerative pump as the actuator of an electrohydraulic totally implantable artificial heart.
The authors have developed a new actuator to drive an electrohydraulic totally implantable artificial heart. The basic concept of this artificial heart is that the blood pumps are implanted in the thorax and an actuator is placed separately in the abdominal region. The actuator is a regenerative pump that pumps fluids against high pressures and is thin enough for easy implantation. The rotor-magnet of the brushless DC motor is mounted on the impeller of the pump to miniaturize the actuator and reduce the number of moving parts. The height, diameter, and weight of the actuator are 32.5 mm, 73 mm, and 360 g, respectively. A pair of oil ports is connected to the left and right blood pumps with mesh reinforced tubes filled with silicone oil. The blood pumps are alternately driven by bidirectional rotation of the motor. Performance of the system was evaluated in in vitro and in vivo experiments. Maximum output of the right heart was 6.7 L/min in both experiments. Systemic circulation was well maintained in acute animal experiments using 49 and 50 kg goats. The feasibility of the actuator was confirmed.
Masuzawa
T
T
Department of Artificial Organs, National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Osaka, Japan.
Taenaka
Y
Y
Kinoshita
M
M
Nakatani
T
T
Akagi
H
H
Takano
H
H
Fukui
Y
Y
Sasagawa
H
H
Takahashi
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D002302:Cardiac Output; D004582:Electronics, Medical; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006041:Goats; D006339:Heart Rate; D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D011474:Prosthesis Design