Upon intracardiac surgery using extracorporeal circulation, hemolysis due to intracardiac suction device is a main problem. Factors affecting hemolysis of roller pump induced suction mechanism are friction of roller pump, suction of blood with air and scattered movement of residual blood in suction circuit. We studied the intracardiac suction device controlled with pulsatile negative pressure electronically to minimize hemolysis. The device is consisted with cylinder 420mm in height and 58mm in diameter containing of reserving chamber, ball valve chamber and discharging chamber. As the characteristic features of this device, we found that pulsatile negative pressure is much effective to suck and return the blood to the oxygenator than continuous and constant negative suction. The pulsatile negative pressure is obtained from vacuum pump controlled by electronic device which is consisted with pulse oscillator, rate controller, driver circuit and solenoid valve. Maximum suction capacity was approximately 4, 000ml/min when applied negative pressure of 30mmHg for 1.2sec. in every 1.8sec. of interval. Upon comparison of hemolysis, it showed ess than 20% of intracardiac suction device by roller pump itself.
