Development of methods of assisted circulation with artificial heart ventricles

A comparative study of two methods of bypassing the heart with artificial ventricles (AV) was conducted: left atrium-aorta and left ventricle-aorta. The following factors permit left ventricular bypass to compete successfully with left ventricle-aorta bypass: creation of perfected pumps with low input impedance, use of materials with high resistance to thrombus formation for preparation of the AV and main connecting lines, and development of optimum methods of anticoagulant, disaggregation, and cardiac therapy so that there is no danger of thrombosis and hemorrhage, either experimentally or clinically. Thrombosis was the primary cause of death in only one case in a series of experiments on 15 calves with AV connected according to the atrium-aorta scheme. The positive changes in hemodynamics were approximately the same with the two methods.