Abstract
To develop a totally implantable artificial heart, a new mechanism of pulsatile total artificial heart (TAH), FTPTAH (Flow Transformed Pulsatile Total Artificial Heart), in which a continuous flow from a single centrifugal pump (CFP) was converted to pulsatile flow to perfuse the pulmonary and systemic circulatory system, was proposed. We already reported the results of the first and the second model. There are several problems resulted from the preveous model consisted of a single CFP and one 6-port spool valve driven by a solenoid and a coil spring. 1) maximum output (4.8l/min) was less than that of expected value by the performance of CFP and high flow resistance, 2) the blood mixture of venous and arterial blood could not be controlled, 3) heat generation was occured at the solenoid. To solve these problems, the third model was developed under the hydro-dynamic design, resulting 7.8l/min of pulsatile output. The spool valve deviled into two 3-port spool valves and each valve was driven by two solenoids, which could protect the artrial and venous blood mixture and excessive heat generation.
