LVAD Sputnik has been improved at the BMS Institute
Nowadays, left ventricular assist devices are a successful surgical treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure. These devices are used if a patient is waiting for donor heart transplantation or has contraindications for it.
One of these devices is a portable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) "Sputnik", developed at the Institute of Biomedical Systems at MIET together with Academician V.I.Shumakov Federal Research Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs. LVAD "Sputnik" is successfully used in in Russia, because it is two times cheaper than foreign counterparts, but has the same quality and reliability.
The new version of LVAD “Sputnik” was developed in order to optimize hemocompatibility and improve the energy efficiency, as well as reduce the invasiveness and increase the versatility of implantable components to expand the possibility of using it in patients with various body weight and size parameters.
Development methods and results 
In the image: design features of LVAD “Sputnik” of the first generation (left) and LVAD “Sputnik” of the second generation (right): (a) geometric models of the main elements used to study the effect of device on the level of damage to human blood cells using computational methods hydrodynamics; (b) projections of geometric models with marked dimensions; and (c) an image of industrial samples with a scale of length.
To develop the new LVAD “Sputnik”, scientists used modern methods and tools of computational fluid dynamics, as well as traditional methods of experimental evaluation. In particular, the developers conducted a comparative analysis of the level of hemolysis, and also studied various aspects of the design of the flow part of the device that affect the damage to human blood cells.
“As a result, we achieved such indicators of blood damage, which allow us to talk about better hemocompatibility even in comparison with existing foreign analogues,” explained the director of the BMS Institute, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Sergey Vasilievich Selishchev. – In addition, the new device has improved energy efficiency and smaller overall dimensions to reduce invasiveness and versatility for different patients. The developers also simplified the design of the elements of the flow path, that allows to change the manufacturing technology to reduce the cost of the final device.”
Approbation
An article with a detailed description of the development methods and tools and the results of numerical simulation and experimental evaluation of the new LVAD “Sputnik” has already been published by the Journal of Functional Biomaterials, included in Q1. Tests of the new “Sputnik” are scheduled for 2022.