Electrohydraulic‐Clamshell Heart with Energy Converter Inside the Compliance Reservoir

Abstract

Two new ideas on the electrohydraulic actuation of blood pumps have been combined. The first idea was to put the energy converters that propel the hydraulic fluid inside the compliance reservoir instead of having them separate. Compactness of the device and better cooling of the energy converter by the surrounding fluid are two major advanages of this approach. Secondly, we put the pumping membrane inside a clamshell that fits over a soft ventricle (I). The ventricle can be implanted first, after which the shell is slid over it. These two ideas have resulted in devices described in this paper. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo data are presented.