Research and Development of a Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Device

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In this research, we have designed and tested a tiny centrifugal blood pump, TinyPUmp, intended for mechanical circulatory support of pediatric patients with the body weight ranging from 3 to 15 Kg. The TinyPump had the 30mm diameter impeller with 6 straight vanes supported by a hydrodynamic bearing at its center and driven by a magnetic coupling force between the external driver magnet and the follower magnet inside the impeller. The pump had the dimensions of 49mm external diameter, 42mm height including the motor driver, priming volume of 5 ml and 1/4 inch size inflow and outflow port. When the TinyPump was connected to the aorta of a 20 Kg piglet using the pediatric outflow cannlua of 2.6, 3.0 and 4.0 mm size, a stable low flow control down to 0.1 L/min was easily demonstrated. In another study, when the TinyPump was used to support both the lungs and heart of 3.0-3.5 Kg new born piglets, it showed improvement in hemodynamic and inflammatory responses incomparison to the clinical used Medtronic Bio-Pump BP-50. The TinyPump with extremely small priming volume of 5 ml, the total circuit prime including the pediatric oxygenator (Terumo Bany-RX) became only 68 ml in comparison to 118 ml of the Medtronic Bio-Pump BP-50. It was thus shown that the TinyPump because of its extremely small priming volume of 5 ml can be a potential candidate for open heart surgery in the pediatric patients to minimize complications such as infection and inflammatory responses due to blood transfusion and to improve the surgical outcomes.