• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.147-150
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• 2023

A child being supported with an extracorporeal ventricular assist device, such as the Berlin Heart EXCOR (Berlin Heart GmbH, Berlin, Germany), must have at least 2 large cannulae for a long period. Management of cannula wounds is crucial since a cannula forms a track of prosthetic material passing the mediastinum to the heart. Deep wound complications, if they occur, can be troublesome and difficult to control with conventional methods. We applied vacuum-assisted closure to a patient who had Berlin-Heart EXCOR and a gap at the cannulation site. Herein, we describe the technical aspects of management in detail.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.116-119
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• 2012

A 61-year-old female patient was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy with severe left ventricle dysfunction. Two days after admission, continuous renal replacement therapy was performed due to oliguria and lactic acidosis. On the fifth day, an intra-aortic balloon pump was inserted due to low cardiac output syndrome. Beginning 4 days after admission, she was supported for 15 days thereafter with an extracorporeal left ventricular assist device (LVAD) because of heart failure with multi-organ failure. A heart transplant was performed while the patient was stabilized with the LVAD. She developed several complications after the surgery, such as cytomegalovirus pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, wound dehiscence, and H1N1 infection. On postoperative day 19, she was discharged from the hospital with close follow-up and treatment for infection. She received follow-up care for 10 months without any immune rejection reaction.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.543-546
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• 2021

A 55-year-old woman who had received an implantable left ventricular assist device 3 months earlier presented with dyspnea and a low-flow alarm of the device. Computed tomography and log-file analysis of the device system suggested inflow cannula obstruction. Since the patient had cardiogenic shock due to pump failure, venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was initiated. With ECMO, surgical exchange of the pump was considered. However, the obstruction spontaneously resolved without surgical intervention. It turned out that an obstructive thrombus was washed out by rebooting the pump. Moreover, the thrombus was embolized in the patient's left subclavian artery. The patient underwent heart transplantation 4 months after the pump obstruction accident and continued to do well.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 1993

We developed a ventricular assist device(VAD) to be used as a bridge to heart transplantation or a circulatory assist device for patients with end-stage heart disease or poor myocardial function after cardiac surgery. It is a pneumatic and diaphragm-type VAD and its stroke volume is 90 cc. The upper housing and diaphragm is made of a segmented polyurethane and the lower back plate is made of a polycarbonate. Two Carbomedics$^R$ mechanical valves are used as inlet and outlet valves. It was tested in vitro and the cardiac output of the VAD was 7 L/min at a heart rate of 70 bpm. The line pressure from a pressure transducer inserted in the pneumatic line was recorded and compared with the ideal pressure tracing.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.197-205
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• 2022

Background: The integrated design of the HeartMate 3 (Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, IL, USA) affords flexibility to place the pump within the pericardium or thoracic cavity. We sought to determine whether the presence of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in either location has a meaningful impact on overall patient outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of all 165 patients who received a HeartMate 3 LVAD via a median sternotomy from November 2014 to August 2019 at our center. Based on operative reports and imaging, patients were divided into intrapleural (n=81) and intrapericardial (n=84) cohorts. The primary outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality, while secondary outcomes included postoperative complications, cumulative readmission incidence, and 3-year survival. Results: There were no significant between-group differences in baseline demographics, risk factors, or preoperative hemodynamics. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 6%, with no significant difference between the cohorts (9% vs. 4%, p=0.20). There were no significant differences in the postoperative rates of right ventricular failure, kidney failure requiring hemodialysis, stroke, tracheostomy, or arrhythmias. Over 3 years, despite similar mortality rates, intrapleural patients had significantly more readmissions (n=180 vs. n=117, p<0.01) with the most common reason being infection (n=68/165), predominantly unrelated to the device. Intrapleural patients had significantly more infection-related readmissions, predominantly driven by non-ventricular assist device-related infections (p=0.02), with 41% of these due to respiratory infections compared with 28% of intrapericardial patients. Conclusion: Compared with intrapericardial placement, insertion of an intrapleural HM3 may be associated with a higher incidence of readmission, especially due to respiratory infection.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.387-394
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• 1996

This paper presents a Neural Network Identification(NNI) method for modeling of highly complicated nonlinear and time varing human system with a pneumatically driven mock circulatory system of Left Ventricular Assist Device(LVAD). This system consists of electronic circuits and pneumatic driving circuits. The initiation of systole and the pumping duration can be determined by the computer program. The line pressure from a pressure transducer inserted in the pneumatic line was recorded System modeling is completed using the adaptively trained backpropagation learning algorithms with input variables, heart rate(HR), systole-diastole rate(SDR), which can vary state of system. Output parameters are preload, afterload which indicate the systemic dynamic characteristics. Consequently, the neural network shows good approximation of nonlinearity, and characteristics of left Ventricular Assist Device. Our results show that the neural network leads to a significant improvement in the modeling of highly nonlinear Left Ventricular Assist Device.

• 순환기질환의공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.16-17
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• 2001

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.349-358
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• 2001

A novel electro-mechanical implantable ventricular assist system is developed as a bridge to transplantation or recovery for patients with end-stage heart failure. The developed system is composed of an implanted blood pump, an external monitoring system which stores data, and a wearable system including a portable external driver and a portable power supply system. The blood pump is designed to be implanted into the left upper abdominal space and provides blood flow from the left ventricular apex to the aorta. The pulsatile blood flow is generated by a double cylindrical cam. There was mo excessive heat emission from the blood pump into the temperature-controlled chamber in the heat test and no stagnated flow within the blood sac by the observation in the flow visualization test. Animal experiments were performed using sheep and calves. The maximum assist flow rate reached 7.85L/min in the animal experiment. The evaluation results showed that the developed system was feasible for the implantable ventricular assist system. The long-term in vitro durability test and mid-term in vivo experiments are in progress and mow the modified next model is under development.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.319-322
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• 2024

Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) is often used in cases of severe respiratory failure, especially in patients considered for lung transplantation. However, because many lung diseases can ultimately result in right heart failure, the treatment of secondary right heart failure can present a challenge when the patient is already under VV ECMO support. In such cases, an oxygenated-right ventricular assist device (OxyRVAD) can be used. OxyRVAD is designed to maintain anterograde blood flow and prevent right ventricular distension. Moreover, the pulmonary arterial cannula can be inserted percutaneously. We report a case in which percutaneous OxyRVAD was successfully implemented to manage right heart failure in a patient with respiratory failure who was on VV ECMO.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.403-406
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• 2001

본 증례는 66세(51.8kg)된 남자에서 수술전 심한 좌심실 기능 부전과 승모판 및 삼첨판 폐쇄부전이 있어 개심술 시행후 심한 저심박출증 발생으로 인공심폐기 이탈에서 실패하고 양심실 보조장치(Centrifugal Biopump)를 사용한 후 이로부터 성공적인 이탈과 퇴원이 보고하는 바이다.