Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Short-Term Direct Left Ventricular Puncture Type Compact Percutaneous...

Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices play a quintessential role in providing hemodynamic support to heart failure patients. The development of short-term compact percutaneous MCS devices which are ideal for emergency acute heart failure applications is one of the promising advances in MCS technologies. This study presents the design and preliminary performance evaluation of a compact percutaneous centrifugal blood pump which is potentially ideal for the quick provision of left ventricular support during emergency cardiac arrest. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the pump were conducted to elucidate the pump's hydrodynamic performance as well as potential regions of blood damage and stagnation. At 7000 rpm rotation speed, numerical simulations predicted the pump's flow output of 5.0 L/min at 120 mmHg pressure head and 17.2% pump efficiency. In hydraulic experiments, 1.0 L/min flow rate was achieved at 100 mmHg and 4700 rpm pump speed. The preliminary results support the feasibility and continued development of short-term compact percutaneous MCS devices.