Soft robotic ventricular assist devices with septal bracing

Existing soft robotic ventricular assist devices for heart failure typically wrap around the heart to provide biventricular assistance without engaging the interventricular septum. This thick muscular wall that separates the right and left ventricles and plays a critical role in healthy heart function. We are developing soft robotic devices that can engage the septum in order to provide cardiac assistance to a single ventricle in isolated heart failure. This has been achieved through placement of a contractile actuator within the ventricle that can approximate the ventricle free wall and septum (Markus et al, ABME 2017). We have also developed devices that use a bracing mechanism that anchors to the septum with external soft robotic actuators (Payne et al, Science Robotics 2017). These devices could be applied to either right or left ventricle and provide sustained cardiac assistance and incorporate autonomous contractile synchronization with the heart based on the native hemodynamics. In in vivo studies, these devices could restore heart function and demonstrated improved refilling of the heart (diastolic function).