Development of optimal operating point controller for implantable total artificial heart

One of the most difficult problems in developing air-driven implantable total artificial hearts (TAH's) is invisibility of the motion of the sac which prevents us from manually adjusting the drive pressure. The optimal operating control method developed by the authors for regulating the stroke volume of the ventricular assist device does not need visual monitoring of the motion of the sac, because this method can automatically control the drive pressure by means of the information on the systolic duration and the outflow rate of blood of the artificial heart. In order to make the air-driven TAH implantable, the optimal operating control method has been newly introduced into the TAH driver developed by University of Tokyo on the basis of Abe's 1/R control method requiring the stroke volume regulation. An animal experiment has been carried out to evaluate its function and discuss its problems for futher improvement.