Preliminary results of left heart bypass in pigs using a heparin-coated centrifugal pump

To assess the feasibility of left ventricular assist without systemic heparinization, we used a commercially available (Sarns 3M) centrifugal pump with tubing set and cannulas, all internally precoated for the purpose of this study with heparin, to bypass the left ventricle in 12 pigs for periods of either 1 or 3 hours. There was no significant activation of clotting and there was no sign of generalized embolization. However, on postmortem studies, 5 kidneys out of 22 examined showed signs of minimal thromboembolism. This experiment shows that artificial left ventricular assist, free of systemic heparinization but using heparin precoating, is feasible and safe, at least for a short period of time.