Vacuum generation in pneumatic artificial heart drives with a specially designed ejector system
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H Schima1, L Huber, F Spitaler
1Second Department of Surgery, University of Vienna, Austria.
Artificial Organs
|June 1, 1990
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.