Initial experience with a juvenile sheep model for evaluation of the pediatric intracorporeal ventricular assist devices

摘要

BackgroundThere is a scarcity of source material available in animal models appropriate to test pediatric-size blood pump design for assisting the left ventricle. A juvenile ovine animal model was developed to evaluate two pediatric ventricular assist devices (VAD). The child size Jarvik 2000 and CircuLite VADs were tested with this model. The 33 in vivo experiments were retrospectively studied to evaluate the reliability of the animal model.