Haematological variations of experimental pigs during biventricular assistance with impeller total heart.

The impeller total heart was developed and published several years ago but its in-vivo evaluations could only be made recently. Originally, the device was designed for long-term implantation. As the first step, however, it was used this time in acute biventricular assistance, to demonstrate the blood compatibility of the pumps, and to demonstrate the feasibility of an impeller type centrifugal total heart. The haematological measurements made during the experiments indicated that no remarkable blood damage occurred and that all the biochemical datums remained relatively unchanged. Because the centrifugal pump has been considered, until now, to be able only to produce a nonpulsatile flow, its applications have been limited mainly to assist the heart. This first assessment of an impeller total heart reported here will open the application area of centrifugal pumps to include cardiovascular surgery.