title: Soft robotic sleeve supports heart function.
abstract: There is much interest in form-fitting, low-modulus, implantable devices or soft robots that can mimic or assist in complex biological functions such as the contraction of heart muscle. We present a soft robotic sleeve that is implanted around the heart and actively compresses and twists to act as a cardiac ventricular assist device. The sleeve does not contact blood, obviating the need for anticoagulation therapy or blood thinners, and reduces complications with current ventricular assist devices, such as clotting and infection. Our approach used a biologically inspired design to orient individual contracting elements or actuators in a layered helical and circumferential fashion, mimicking the orientation of the outer two muscle layers of the mammalian heart. The resulting implantable soft robot mimicked the form and function of the native heart, with a stiffness value of the same order of magnitude as that of the heart tissue. We demonstrated feasibility of this soft sleeve device for supporting heart function in a porcine model of acute heart failure. The soft robotic sleeve can be customized to patient-specific needs and may have the potential to act as a bridge to transplant for patients with heart failure.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Discipline of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
authors.forename: Ellen T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Roche
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Horvath
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wamala
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alazmani
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
authors.forename: Sang-Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Zurab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Machaidze
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.affiliation: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Ronald Reagan UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fishbein
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuebler
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Nikolay V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Vasilyev
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mooney
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. walsh@seas.harvard.edu frank.pigula@ulp.org.|Cardiovascular Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Frank A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Pigula
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. walsh@seas.harvard.edu frank.pigula@ulp.org.|Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Conor J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006334:Heart Function Tests; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D009038:Motion; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012371:Robotics; D012828:Silicones / Q000737:chemistry; D013552:Swine; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography
chemical_list: D012828:Silicones