Analysis of shear stress related hemolysis in a ventricular assist device

BACKGROUND: Implantable devices such as ventricular assist devices provide appropriate treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. Unfortunately, these devices still have many problems, particularly related to blood damage. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to examine two new ventricular assist devices in terms of induced shear stress, exposure time, and induced hemolysis. METHOD: Reverse engineering was used on multiple axial flow ventricular assist devices to collect all the details related to the designs (diameters, lengths, blade angles…), which were used to build two prototypes: Model A and Model B. RESULTS: The obtained results were close to a large extent, except for static pressure rise, where the difference was clear. CONCLUSION: Compared with what has been published in other studies, the overall performance of both models was excellent.