A novel valveless rotary pump for cardiac assist

Abstract

We describe the design and preliminary testing of a novel pump designed for cardiac assist. It is a valveless rotary pump that can generate pulsatile or nonpulsatile output. The basis of the pump design is a cylindrical cavity swept by a vane sliding in a rotating disc. During rotation, rollers at the ends of the vane are in constant contact with the internal wall of the cavity so that a fluid-containing space is swept around the cavity from the inflow to the outflow ports. Bench tests showed that the output was relatively independent of the outflow resistance at pressures up to 100 mm Hg. In tests in dogs, the pump performed satisfactorily as a left ventricular assist device and as a pump for total cardiopulmonary bypass. We believe that this simple pump design has potential as a left ventricular assist device or total artificial heart and merits further investigation.