Design Optimization of Artificial Heart Blood Pumps Based on Hemolysis Testing

Abstract A measurement of blood hemolysis level (damage of blood cells) during pumping is one of the most effective methods to determine an ideal design feature of blood pumps which are under developmental stage. In this paper, typical results obtained by in vitro hemolysis test were introduced. Fundamental data on the effects of inner shapes on blood hemolysis suggested that an inlet taper or leading small round edge of the stenosis were quite effective to reduce a hemolysis level. In addition, it was revealed that a surface roughness was a great factor to the hemolysis. For the next step, a comparative in vitro hemolysis test was performed among three blood pumps. As the spiral vortex (SV) pump has been developing, the level of hemolysis was measured one after the other. The SV pump produced lower hemolysis than a roller pump which is widely used as a blood pump in open heart surgery. A conventional (parallel inlet and outlet ports, dome shaped housing) commercially available ventricular assist pump exhibited comparatively higher hemolysis than the SV pump. Then, the superiority of the SV design concept was verified.