Work

Design and Validation of a Recirculating Cooling System for Robotic Cardiac Injection Therapy to Improve Patient Safety and Surgeon Workflow

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: HeartLander is a miniature mobile robot designed to navigate on the surface of the heart using a crawling motion and is well-suited for delivering myocardial injections. Previous work has incorporated a cooling system to enable delivery of a thermally responsive anti-ventricular remodeling hydrogel to a target injection site. However, the previous setup required the saline coolant to be discharged at the distal end of the system and into the patient's pericardial space, hindering the hydrogel from forming a deposit at the target site, presenting an additional burden to the surgeon's workflow, and increasing the risk to the patient. To prevent this, we redesigned the system to include a return channel for the coolant, which discharges to a reservoir outside the patient. We validated this design with a multiphysics simulation, static water bath tests, and by demonstration of controlled injections in an ovine heart ex vivo at 37°C.

Source: Journal of Medical Devices

DOI: 10.1115/1.4068896

Authors: Miguel A. Martinez, Seungil Kim, Johannes Bonatti, William R. Wagner, Cameron N. Riviere

Institutions: Carnegie Mellon University, Mississippi State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Language: English

Topic: Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute