Development and hydrodynamic evaluation of a novel inflow cannula in a mechanical circulatory support system for bridge to decision.

Recent progress in the development of implantable rotary blood pumps realized long-term mechanical circulatory support (MCS) for bridge to transplant, bridge to recovery, or a destination therapy. Meanwhile, a short-term MCS system is becoming necessary for bridge to decision. We developed a novel inflow cannula for the short-term MCS system, which gives sufficient bypass flow with minimal invasion at insertion, and evaluated its hydrodynamic characteristics. The novel inflow cannula, named the Lantern cannula, is made of elastic silicone reinforced with metal wires. The cannula tip has six slits on the side. This cannula tip can be extended to the axial direction by using an introducer and can be reduced in diameter, and the Lantern cannula enables easy insertion into the left ventricle apex with minimal invasion. The sufficient bypass flow rate can be obtained due to low pressure loss. Moreover, this Lantern shape also resists suction complication around the cannula tip. The pressure loss through the Lantern cannula was measured using a mock circulation and compared with two commercially available venous cannulae (Sarns4882, Terumo, Tokyo, Japan and Stockert V122-28, Sorin Group, Tokyo, Japan), which have almost same diameter as the Lantern cannula. Moreover, the flow patterns around the cannula tip were numerically analyzed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Acute animal experiment was also performed to confirm the practical effectiveness of the Lantern cannula. The pressure loss of the Lantern cannula was the lowest compared with those of the commercially available venous cannulae in in vitro experiment. CFD analysis results demonstrated that the Lantern cannula has low pressure loss because of wide inflow orifice area and a bell mouth, which were formed via Lantern shape. The highest bypass flow was obtained in the Lantern cannula because of the low pressure loss under pulsatile condition in in vivo experiments. The Lantern cannula demonstrated superior hydrodynamic characteristics as the inflow cannula in terms of pressure loss due to its specially designed Lantern shape.