Novel Transaortic Double Barrel Ventricular Cannula

Abstract

A novel transaortic ventricular cannula, known as the ‘double barrel’ cannula (DBC), is designed to minimize the invasiveness of Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) implantation by combining the inlet and outlet cannulae into a single dual lumen cannula. Both flows will pass through a single opening in the apex of the Left Ventricle with the outflow then continuing past the aortic valve, into the aortic arch. This design offers several potential advantages over the current state-of-the-art. These include less invasive surgery and providing mechanical support to the septum. By routing the outflow through the aortic valve, the need to access the external structure of the ascending aorta is eliminated thereby eliminating the need for open heart surgery. In determining the DBC's design, close attention has been paid to the outflow portion of the cannula, which passes through the aortic valve. It was anticipated that this portion of the DBC could have the largest impact on the device's usability in practice. The object of this study was to test the performance of the valve with the cannula passing through it. Three different geometries are circular, equilateral triangular, and one-third semicircular. Experiments measuring aortic insufficiency during the diastolic phase were conducted. The experiment was designed to analyze several geometries passing through an aortic valve under diastolic flow conditions. All experiments used a simple flow loop which allows a natural porcine aortic valve to be viewed from downstream. The loop was driven with a pneumatic ventricular simulator in order to produce a cyclic flow. Three cannulae cross-sections were molded from RTV11 Silicone. During this test, High Speed Cinematography and flow rate measurement were used to quantify valve sealing and leakage. All data was collected and analyzed for the three cross-sectional geometries during diastole. The performances of the three geometries were compared using American Heart Association guidelines of aortic insufficiency (Al) diagnosis. The flow rate data was integrated in order to determine the volume of ventricle ejection and valve regurgitation. All three geometries exhibit low and acceptable levels of Al (⩽15%Al), with the circular geometry causing the least amount of Al at 7.1%. The experimental control (Porcine aortic valve with no cannulae) exhibited an Al or 2.4%, validating both the harvested aortic valve and experimental flow loop for further testing. Using the high speed cinematography, several phenomena were observed during the sealing of the porcine valve; including leaflet folding leaflet bunching, and cannula displacement due to valve closure.