Artificial organs
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The objective of this translational study was to evaluate the FDA-approved PediMag, CentriMag, and RotaFlow centrifugal blood pumps in terms of hemodynamic performance using simulated neonatal and pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits with different sizes of arterial and venous cannulae. Cost of disposable pump heads was another important variable for this particular study. The experimental circuit was composed of one of the centrifugal pump heads, a polymethylpentene membrane oxygenator, neonatal and pediatric arterial/venous cannulae, and 1/4-inch ID tubing. ⋯ The arterial cannula had the highest pressure drop and hemodynamic energy loss in the circuit when compared to the oxygenator and arterial tubing. The RotaFlow centrifugal pump had a significantly better hemodynamic performance when compared to the PediMag and CentriMag blood pumps at identical experimental conditions in simulated neonatal and pediatric ECMO settings. In addition, the cost of the RotaFlow pump head ($400) is 20 to 30-fold less than the other centrifugal pumps [CentriMag ($12 000) or PediMag ($8000)] that were evaluated in this translational study.