ConVes
More and more people suffer from heart insufficiency and because donors are missing the numer of implanted heartpumps (VAD) steadily increases. The VAD pumps the blood from the left ventricle through a hose in the aorta. The connection of aorta and hose is called anastomosis. This anastomosis is still sutured by hand and has many disadvantages e.g. the duration of the process and the dependency on the skill of the surgeon.
Due to the lack of convincing and innovative solutions the ConVes team developed a new device which is intuitive to handle and able to connect the hose and the aorta four times faster than an experienced surgeon can sutur manually.
The core of the anastomosis is a champfered stent with an inner ring and a membrane that seals the anastomosis and holds the both parts together. Before the operation the hose is sutured to this stent.
The device carries the prepared stent at the desired place in the aorta. There the balloon expands the stent to finish the anastomosis and the device can be removed.
The team consists of four mechanical engineers and two students of health science at ETH Zürich. The project is integrated in the Zurich Heart project and collaborates with the USZ and the DHZB.