Studies of the Hemocompatibility of the Sputnik Ventricular Assist Device in Constant and Pulse-Modulated Operating Modes

We report here studies of the hemocompatibility of the Sputnik ventricular assist device operating in constant and pulse-modulated rotor speed modes. Flow dynamics and the potential risk of blood damage associated with the use of ventricular assist devices (VAD) were investigated using computational fluid dynamics methods. Hemolysis was predicted numerically using a tensor model for blood damage. Scalar wall shear stresses and the index of hemolysis were obtained from the Sputnik VAD-w flow field. The total surface areas of the flow path with wall shear stresses (WSS) >150 Pa and the surface of potential thrombus formation with WSS