Numerical Study of Blood Flow at the End-to-Side Anastomosis of a Left Ventricular Assist Device for Adult Patients

Ventricular assist devices (VADs) have been used for years in adult patients with end-stage heart failure, during bridge-to-transplant, and they have recently shown promise in aiding in myocardial recovery [1]. While the fluid mechanics within VADs has been studied extensively [2], an area which must be more adequately addressed is the outflow cannula attached as an end-to-side anastomosis to the aorta. This attachment may lead to unnaturally high and low shear stresses, turbulence, flow separation, and stagnant flows. As a result, platelet activation and thrombus formation may occur. May-Newman et al. [3] developed a laminar, continuous, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to study how different outflow cannula anastomoses affect flow patterns in an adult aortic model. Turbulent flows, however, were not considered. The effects of the anastomosis on the flows in the secondary vessels were neglected as well. There is a lack of detailed description of the flow field across the cannulated adult aorta based on different VAD outflow cannula configurations and operating conditions. As a result, we have developed a comprehensive model to simulate turbulent blood flow in three-dimensional models of the cannulated adult aorta under continuous flow conditions and to study the impact of the secondary vessels on the aortic arch.