title: Vacuum generation in pneumatic artificial heart drives with a specially designed ejector system.
abstract: To improve the filling characteristics of pneumatically driven membrane artificial hearts (AHs), a vacuum is applied during diastole. This paper describes an ejector system for AH-drivers based on the Venturi effect, which was designed for this purpose. It provides vacuums of more than -40 mmHg at flow rates up to 50 l/min requiring a supplying primary gas pressure of less than 150 kPa (1140 mmHg). Under normal working conditions, the necessary supply flow was less than 5l/min. The device is small, cheap, quiet and fail-safe, and has been evaluated successfully in experimental and clinical use.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schima
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Spitaler
mesh_terms: D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006801:Humans; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D014618:Vacuum