Small blood pumps for small patients

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Heart failure and congenital heart defects threaten the lives of several thousand children each year. The only FDA-approved long term pediatric heart support device is the Berlin Heart Excor, which is based on 30+ year old technology and is fraught with complications including blood clots forming in the device requiring frequent device replacement. The recipients of this technology are at high risk for strokes, bleeding, and infection and the pumps are driven by a large 220 lb console, which limits patient mobility and prevents hospital discharge. In spite of these severe limitations, 90% of Excor recipients survive to transplant, although the median duration of support is only 35 days. A safer device would dramatically reduce the complications of support, permit discharge to home, and allow doctors to deploy the technology earlier, before a child reaches the brink of death. VADovations is developing a miniature implantable pump platform, the Revolution, in which minor modificatio