Design and Hemolytic Performance of a Centrifugal Artificial Blood Pump

Significant advances have been made in the design and manufacture of artificial blood pumps. However, blood compatibility issues such as hemolysis, thrombosis, and inflammation during the clinical use of artificial blood pumps have reduced their reliability. Among these issues, hemolysis problems can lead to acute kidney injury, hyperkalemia, and in severe cases, even serious threats to life. To address hemolysis problems, blood transfusion, reduction of blood pump speed, and medication to promote erythropoiesis are generally used. This study explores the hemolysis problem from the perspective of the essence of problem solving, that is, the design of the blood pump structure.

A new centrifugal pump UJN-1 was designed based on empirical design theory and the velocity coefficient method of traditional centrifugal pumps. We used the commercial software Fluent to compare the data obtained from our simulation of FDA benchmark blood pumps with the results of other researchers to validate the accuracy of our simulation method. Based on the CFD numerical simulation method, we evaluated the hemolytic performance of three centrifugal pumps: Revolution, PuraLev 200SU, and UJN-1. The hydraulic performance of the designed UJN-1 blood pump was experimentally verified.

The UJN-1 could provide a blood flow rate of 4-6 L/min and a blood pressure of 120 mmHg at 2500 rpm. The CFD numerical simulation and experimental results of the designed artificial blood pump UJN-1 were compared and verified, and the results showed that the error was small. The hemolysis results of the Revolution pump, 200SU pump, and UJN-1 pump were 3.35 × 10^-4%, 2.20 × 10^-4%, and 1.49 × 10^-4%, respectively. In a comparison of hemolysis among the three pumps, the UJN-1 pump had the lowest level of hemolysis.

This low hemolysis artificial blood pump design is important for long-term clinical use and high reliability of medical devices.