Authors:
Qiyuan Wu
1
;
Vincent Cleveland
2
;
Seda Aslan
1
;
Xiaolong Liu
1
;
Jacqueline Contento
2
;
Paige Mass
2
;
Byeol Kim
1
;
Catherine Pollard
1
;
Pranava Sinha
3
;
Yue-Hin Loke
2
;
3
;
Laura Olivieri
2
;
4
and
Axel Krieger
1
Affiliations:
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.
;
2
Sheikh Zayed Institute of Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
;
3
Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, M Health Fairview University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
;
4
Division of Cardiology, Children’s National Hospital, Washington DC, U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Convergent Cavopulmonary Connection, Ventricular Assist Device, Single Ventricle Heart Disease, Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Abstract:
Fontan surgery is the clinical standard for single ventricle heart disease, with total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) as the current preferred configuration. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is often desired to improve hemodynamics and reduce post-surgical complications. Convergent cavopulmonary connection (CCPC) was recently proposed to solve the difficulty of integrating MCS in TCPC. In this study, we investigated the hemodynamics of the CCPC conduit with a ventricular assist device (VAD) integrated and explored indexed power jump (iPJ) and time-averaged wall shear stress (TAWSS) by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with assistance from flow loop experiments. Positive time-averaged iPJ was observed in the cases with limited cardiac output, and regions with non-physiologic low TAWSS were significantly reduced for all cases. These results could strengthen the feasibility of this novel CCPC Fontan configuration as a solution for MCS integration.