A growing population experiencing heart failure (100,000 patients/year), combined with a shortage of donor organs (less than 2200 hearts/year), has led to increased and expanded use of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices. MCS devices have successfully improved clinical outcomes, which are comparable with heart transplantation and result in better 1-year survival than optimal medical management therapies. The quality of perfusion provided during MCS therapy may play an important role in patient outcomes. Despite demonstrated physiologic benefits of pulsatile perfusion, continued use or development of pulsatile MCS devices has been widely abandoned in favor of continuous flow pumps owing to the large size and adverse risks events in the former class, which pose issues of thrombogenic surfaces, percutaneous lead infection, and durability. Next-generation MCS device development should ideally implement designs that offer the benefits of rotary pump technology while providing the physiologic benefits of pulsatile end-organ perfusion.

The study objective was to evaluate the Jostra HL-20 roller pump under different baseflow and pump head settings with quantified energy values from pressure and flow waveforms, in a simulated pediatric bypass circuit. Pump flow rate was set at 800 mL/min for both pulsatile and nonpulsatile perfusion modes and the mean arterial pressure (MAP) of the pseudopatient was maintained at 40 mm Hg for each experiment. Pulsatile baseflow settings and pump head start points varied with each experiment. Pressure and flow waveforms were recorded at preoxygenator, precannula, and postcannula sites under each pump setting. A total of 91 experiments were performed (n=7, nonpulsatile; n=84, pulsatile). Increasing baseflow caused decreases in the mean circuit pressure and surplus hemodynamic energy (SHE) levels for all pump head start times. When increasing pump head start time within each baseflow, values for MAP and SHE increased significantly. Regardless of baseflow or pump head start time, values for mean circuit pressure and SHE were lower for nonpulsatile flow than for pulsatile flow. Total hemodynamic energy values were also significantly higher under pulsatile perfusion and increased pump start times while decreasing with increased baseflows in the circuit. This study concludes that decreased baseflows with increased pump head settings on the Jostra HL-20 roller pump could significantly increase quality of generated pulsatile energy. Further research is necessary to evaluate these various pump settings under microembolic loads and with different circuit components.