Increased Longevity and Pumping Performance of an Injection Molded Soft Total Artificial Heart
Leonard G. Guex, Liam Jones, A. Xavier Kohll, Roland Walker, Mirko Meboldt, Volkmar Falk, Marianne Schmid Daners, Wendelin J. Stark
Abstract
In this work, we present an injection molded soft total artificial heart (sTAH) produced from high-temperature vulcanizing silicone using an industrial metal injection mold. At 60 beats per minute, the sTAH exhibited a total cardiac output of over 16 L/min against physiological pressures on a mock circulation and was pumped continuously for 110,000 actuation cycles. Finite element analysis was used to identify stress concentrations within the sTAH, allowing an optimized design to be proposed.
Topics & Concepts
Artificial heartMaterials scienceSiliconeBiomedical engineeringMoldComposite materialMechanical engineeringEngineeringSurgeryMedicineSoft Robotics and ApplicationsMechanical Circulatory Support DevicesCardiac Valve Diseases and Treatments