Left ventricular assist devices are mechanical pumps that provide full or partial support of the circulation in patients with varying degrees of heart failure. These devices are usually connected to the heart through the ventricular apex and placed in an abdominal pocket or pericardial sac, which requires open heart surgery. However, investigators have suggested advantages of catheter deployment of an intra-aortic pump, positioned in the ascending aorta using an anchoring device [1]. This simulation study explores the hemodynamic effects of a continuous flow, axial flow pump deployed in the ascending aorta (AAo), specifically focusing on: (a) perfusion of the coronary arterial circulation and (b) the effect of induced nonphysiologic, swirling flow discharged by the pump on perfusion to head-neck vessels of the aortic arch.
A 3D numerical model of an adult aorta with coronary arterial branches was reconstructed by fusion of segmented vascular anatomies extracted from magnetic resonance...
