Improved Impella Bi-VAD, team Hufflepuff, Section 502

Our device objective was to design a fully implantable bi-vad for children ranging in age from 6 months to adolescence with the intent of a bridge to transplant or recovery. Our device improves upon the impella design that is already available in clinical trials. The impella design is an axial flow LVAD inserted via catheter through aortic valve into the left ventricle. An impeller coated in heparin provides suction that moves blood from an inlet in the left ventricle through an outlet in the lumen of the aorta. There are three main problems associated with the impella design that our device corrects:

• The impella design does not adequately perfuse the coronary and cerbral ostia.
• The aortic valve does not provide an adequate seal around the impella pump, resulting in backflow.
• As the child grows the pump can be displaced.

To correct these problems:

• An aortic balloon was inserted though the aortic archwhich inflates on diastole and deflates on systole. This provides backflow against an artificial value which allows appropriate perfusion of the coronary and cerebral ostia and aids the failing heart with contractions.
  
• A nitinol cage containing an allograft or porcine valve will be inserted through the aortic valve. This artificial valve will contain more leaflets allowing appropriate closure around the pump, preventing backflow.
• The pump will be secured via a pig tail end cap which can stretch as the child grows.

Our group also designed an RVAD which is inserted via a Swan-Ganz catheter through the vena cavae, through the atrium, through the tricuspid valve and into the right ventricle where it will also be secured via a pigtail endcap. The RVAD does not need a nitinol stent or balloon to assist in proper functioning of the heart because the pulmonary valve does not interfere with any vessel ostia.