Soft robotic sleeve supports heart function

Ellen T Roche; Markus A Horvath; Isaac Wamala; Ali Alazmani; Sang-Eun Song; William Whyte; Zurab Machaidze; Christopher J Payne; James C Weaver; Gregory Fishbein; Joseph Kuebler; Nikolay V Vasilyev; David J Mooney; Frank A Pigula; Conor J Walsh

doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3925

Soft robotic sleeve supports heart function

Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jan 18;9(373):eaaf3925. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3925.

Authors

Ellen T Roche^{1

2

3}, Markus A Horvath^{1

2

4}, Isaac Wamala⁵, Ali Alazmani^{1

2

5

6}, Sang-Eun Song^{1

2

7}, William Whyte^{1

2

8}, Zurab Machaidze⁵, Christopher J Payne^{1

2}, James C Weaver², Gregory Fishbein⁹, Joseph Kuebler¹⁰, Nikolay V Vasilyev⁵, David J Mooney^{1

2}, Frank A Pigula^{11

12}, Conor J Walsh^{13

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
² Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 3 Blackfan Circle, Longwood, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³ Discipline of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
⁴ Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching, Germany.
⁵ Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁶ School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
⁷ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
⁸ Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
⁹ Department of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Ronald Reagan UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹¹ Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected] [email protected].
¹² Cardiovascular Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
¹³ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. [email protected] [email protected].

PMID: 28100834
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3925

Abstract

There is much interest in form-fitting, low-modulus, implantable devices or soft robots that can mimic or assist in complex biological functions such as the contraction of heart muscle. We present a soft robotic sleeve that is implanted around the heart and actively compresses and twists to act as a cardiac ventricular assist device. The sleeve does not contact blood, obviating the need for anticoagulation therapy or blood thinners, and reduces complications with current ventricular assist devices, such as clotting and infection. Our approach used a biologically inspired design to orient individual contracting elements or actuators in a layered helical and circumferential fashion, mimicking the orientation of the outer two muscle layers of the mammalian heart. The resulting implantable soft robot mimicked the form and function of the native heart, with a stiffness value of the same order of magnitude as that of the heart tissue. We demonstrated feasibility of this soft sleeve device for supporting heart function in a porcine model of acute heart failure. The soft robotic sleeve can be customized to patient-specific needs and may have the potential to act as a bridge to transplant for patients with heart failure.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Female
Heart / physiology*
Heart Failure / physiopathology*
Heart Failure / therapy*
Heart Function Tests
Heart-Assist Devices*
Humans
Inflammation
Motion
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Robotics*
Silicones / chemistry
Swine
X-Ray Microtomography

Substances

Silicones