Influence of the inlet and outlet compliance on the effectiveness and work safety of a pneumatically-driven paracorporeal prosthetic ventricle

The paper deals with the problems connected with mechanical assistance to cardiovascular system by means of the pneumatically driven artificial ventricle POLVAD-MEV and, more precisely, the influence of the pump elements' compliance being placed directly in the front of the inflow valve (inlet compliance) and behind the outflow valve (outlet compliance) on the effectiveness and safety of this assistance. The authors concentrated mainly on the changes in the output flow of the aniflcial ventricle and inertia phenomena (water-hammer effect) occurring together with different values of the compliance. All experiments were carried out in the Biocybernetics Laboratory of the Institute of Heart Prostheses in Cardiac Surgery Development Foundation in Zabrze by means of a mock circulation and a physical model of the inlet and outlet compliance.