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A new motor-driven blood pump for artificial heart was developed. In this blood pump, a small size, high torque brushless DC motor was used as an energy converter and the motor rolls back and forth on a circular track. This movement of the "rolling-cyliner" causes blood ejection by alternately pushing left or right polyurethane blood sacs. This moving-actuator mechanism could be eliminate two potential problems of other motor-driven artificial hearts such as large size and poor anastomosis for the implantation. Theoretical analyses on the pump efficiency, the temperature rise, and the inflow mechanism were also performed. In a series of mock circulation tests, the theoretical analyses were compared to the measured hemodynamic and mechanical values. The pump system was shown to have sufficient cardiac output (upto 9 L/min ), sensitivity to preload, and mechanical stability to be tested as an implantable total artificial heart.
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