PULSATILE PUMP OR FLOW MODULATOR FOR EXTRACORPOREAL CIRCULATION

At present the extracorporeal systems (heart lung machine, called here HLM) use continuous flow pumps; but this continuous flow is completely different from the pulsatile flow produced by the natural heart, to which the human body is used to. Aim of this invention is the use of an active or passive device, that can be inserted at the end of an HLM, immediately before the connection to aorta (or also immediately after the oxygenator, but using a cannula with a proper distributed compliance in order to compensate its inertance) which allows to have pulsatile flow only in the terminal part of the cannula, so strongly reducing the negative effects of the inertance. This device periodically injects energy to the fluid, so to produce the pulsatility, taking it from an own energy source (active device), or using energy supplied by the continuous flow pump of the HLM (passive device made by a compliance plus an on-off valve).