PULSATILE TOTAL ARTIFICIAL-HEART USING A REVERSIBLE ROTARY PUMP

A pump circuit was assembled and examined for use as an implantable ar tificial heart. The circuit consisted of a gear pump and 4 artificial heart valves. Mitral and pulmonary arterial valves were placed at the inflow port of the pump, and aortic and tricuspid valves were placed a t the outflow port. The mitral and the tricuspid valves were connected to each reservoir at 10 mm Hg, and the aortic and the pulmonary arter ial valves were connected to the head tanks at 80 and 20 mm Hg, respec tively. The pump discharged pulsatile flows into both systemic and pul monary arteries alternately by switching the direction of rotation per iodically. Because the rated discharge was 1.7 L/min for the gear pump used, the measured flow rate was 0.8-0.75 L/min at a heart rate of 60 -110 bpm.