A newly designed jellyfish valve for an artificial heart blood pump.

Bjork-Shiley and Hall valves used in most artificial heart blood pumps have often induced problems, which include 1) An expensive valve must be used even when the AH is used for only a few days, 2) Ring thrombus was often formed at the interface between the valve ring and blood pump, seamless fabrication was not possible, and 3) Mechanical failure often occurred. To improve these circumstances, a new jellyfish valve was designed and manufactured. The valve has a simple structure: The center of a thin circular polyurethane membrane is fixed on a polyurethane base plate, which has many holes or slits to reduce flow resistance and help hold the membrane during the diastolic phase. In a mock circulation study, the valve displayed performance similar to the Bjork-Shiley valve. A small amount of regurgitant flow was observed at valve closure, in comparison with the Bjork-Shiley valve. It was recognized in the flow visualization study that the central region of the membrane was washed out well by the flapping of the membrane. This jellyfish valve is promising for use in a AH blood pump.