A Miniature Durable Ventricular Assist Device Technology

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ventricular assist devices have had very significant success with respect to saving lives and improving the quality of care of heart disease patients. Among the improvements required for further progress in this area are increased biocompatibility, smaller size, easier implant and removal, and lower costs. Perfusion Solutions proposes to develop a rotary blood pump technology with a rotor support system less likely to develop clots, of size equal to the smallest pumps available today but with orders of magnitude longer life, which is easy to package in different housing geometries for different clinical applications. This flexibility lets the same basic pump fill many market niches. As a result, clinicians need not learn the characteristics of multiple operating systems and development and production costs can be spread over more units. In this phase I application demonstration prototypes of the new design will be built and tested. The basic performance, durability and hemolysis characteristics of the pump will be documented. In the phase II research pre-clinical prototypes of both the intravascular (catheter) and extravascular (implanted by minimally invasive surgical techniques) pumps will be designed, built and tested in the lab and with animal implant experiments. The end result will be ventricular assist pumps someday applicable to tens of thousands of patients in need of resuscitation, short/medium term support and permanent assist by blood pumps. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Many of these patients could be saved with a blood pump suitable for quick implant to maintain perfusion after cardiac arrest, for short/medium term support until other definitive treatment can be arranged or takes effect, or for permanent assist of a weak heart. The proposed program will demonstrate a pump design approach highly suitable for meeting these needs.