Anforderungsgerechte Auslegung eines linearen Direktantriebs für vollständig implantierbare Herzersatzsysteme

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in industrialised countries. Endstage heart failure requires the implantation of a ventricular assist device or, in extreme cases, a heart transplant. However, the increasing demand in donor hearts is in sharp contrast with the insufficient and stagnating number of donors. Thus, alternatives to donor hearts are essential to provide therapy for all patients on the waiting lists. Many artificial hearts have been developed yet, but seldom beyond the experimental stage. Too high are the system requirements on such devices, i. e. redundancy, miniaturisation, hemocompatibility, minimisation of the infection risks and lifetime. In accordance with all cardiovascular demands at preferable pulsatile perfusion as well as maintaining patient’s quality of life at satisfactory level, up to date no system is available achieving all these requirements at once. The general purpose, led in collaboration with the Institute for Applied Medical Engineering (AME) of RWTH Aachen University, is to provide a pulsatile heart replacement system that fulfills all requirements listed above simultaneously for the first time. Thereby, the focus of this PhD work lies on the development and the evaluation of an actuator, optimally adapted to these demands.