Development of a percutaneous pediatric ventricular assist device

Remarkable progress has been made on ventricular assist devices for adult patients. Unfortunately, similar devices are not yet available in the United States for pediatric heart patients. The goal of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a percutaneous ventricular assist device for pediatric patients above 2 kg. The proposed system consists of an extracorporeal centrifugal blood pump, a transseptal venous cannula that takes blood from the left atrium to the pump, an arterial cannula that returns the blood to the arterial system, and a controller to adjust pump speed/flow. Using an ad hoc pediatric pump prototype and a spectrum of specially designed cannulae of various sizes, benchtop studies showed that the proposed system could deliver blood flow in a range of 0.3 to 3.0 l/min. For smaller patients (2-35 kg), the transseptal cannula was designed to be placed in the internal jugular vein and the arterial cannula in the internal carotid artery. For larger patients (> 35 kg), the femoral vein and artery would be used. Further development effort will be focused on reducing the hemolysis of the pump design, refining the cannula design, and demonstrating the safety and functionality in animal studies.