Researchers at Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK say that they are developing the world’s first electronic smart pump, which could increase survival chances of victims of chronic heart failure. The smart aortic graft would be implanted into a removed section of the aorta to improve the heart’s efficiency.

A smart material, which expands when a voltage is applied to it, would surround an inner woven tube to act as a pump. The tube would be made using origami-type techniques allowing it to expand and collapse.

The device, for which a patent has been filed, would create a counter blood-flow by “beating” out of phase with the diseased heart. When the heart fills with blood, the woven tube would contract to increase pressure in the heart. When the heart then pumps oxygenated blood around the body, the tube would expand to release the pressure and increase the blood flow.

Using 3D printing techniques, the research team aims for the smart pump to be tailor-made to each patient by using MRI scan data.

They say that the smart pump would be powered by a battery implanted in the patient’s body and would be entirely self-contained, without the need for the patient to be hospital bedbound and connected to large machinery via catheters and transdermal lines.

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