Abstract
The left ventricular assist (LVA) becomes the treatment of choice for the management of left heart failure in the post operative period. During this period, if right ventricular failure should occur, another assist pump is required. But the application of an ordinary blood pump is more or less invasive. To minimize the damage, the RVBP i. e. a balloon inserted into the right ventricular cavity via the jugular vein was pumped to expel the blood into the pulmonary artery, was developed.
The balloon, unstreched volume is approximately 15mL, was madee of segmented polyether urethane urea (PEUU) and tied onto a catheter, 30cm long and 3mm ID, with multiple side holes. Twenty mongrel dogs weighing around 10Kg were used. In this experiment, the balloon was inserted via the right auricle or apical area of the right ventricle.
It was found that even when the natural heart was not beating, the right ventricular systolic pressure of more than 30mmHg was generated, and the pulmonary arterial blood flow was able to maintaine above 80mL/min/Kg body weight and central venous pressure was kept normal, less than 10mmHg, by the combination of RVBP and LVA. When the natural heart was beating, increase of the pulmonary arterial blood flow by applying RVBP depended on the degree of the right heart failure, but it was enough to compensate the power failure of the right ventricle. Regurgitation through the tricuspid valve was seldom found during the RVBP. These results indicate that RVBP may be a promissing method for right ventcular failure which occurs during LVA.
