Orthotopic heart replacement by nonpulsatile axial blood pumps

In the last decade, there have been many experiments with nonpulsatile blood pumps to perform functional heart replacement by biventricular assist devices. To determine if life is sustainable with nonpulsatile blood flow, two nonpulsatile blood pumps were implanted in the orthotopic position as an artificial heart after removal of the natural heart in extracorporeal circulation. In three preliminary experiments, the feasibility of total heart replacement with nonpulsatile implantable blood pumps was shown.