Design and Development of a Magnetostatic Pump for Blood Pumping

Nowadays numerous patients suffer from blood damage. Specifically, hemolysis is damage to the blood cells that trigger the release of hemoglobin into the blood plasma that can cause morphological changes and biomedical alterations Mechanical shear stress plays an important role that drives the rupture of red blood cells. In this work, a novel magnetic pump is designed and built with the aim to use it in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The operation of this pump is based on the controlled movement of magnetic particles (ferrofluid) that have been added to the blood stabilized by a quadrupolar magnetic field. A special chamber is designed and built to enter and exit the blood as well as to keep the ferrofluid in the cycle within the blood. In this study, the effect of flow rate (maximum 150 mL/min) on plasma-free hemoglobin (PFH) is investigated .