Blood trauma and energy loss: Invitro and insilico evaluation of a centrifugal blood pump

To investigate hemolysis damage in blood pumps under off-design conditions and explore its link with hydraulic performance and blood trauma. A commercial pump (Rotaflow) was used to perform multi-condition studies (2000–4000 rpm, 1–5 lpm). Invitro hemolysis experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulation were used to assess blood pump flow features, energy loss, and hemolysis.Blood pumps operating under off-design conditions produce more hemoglobin, increasing the risk of blood trauma. Existing hemolysis prediction models are appropriate for qualitative analysis but can underestimate blood trauma in blood pumps at off-design conditions. Superimposed hemolysis damage appears to be a more clinically relevant assessment method than the unit hemolysis damage indicator, especially for blood pumps operating under low-flow conditions. Whether the consideration of turbulent shear stress or not had a little effect on the results of the qualitative analysis. Energy loss indicators (power loss and entropy generation) correlated extremely well with shear stress and hemolysis indicators (r > 0.9). Rotary blood pumps operating off-design conditions can lead to deterioration of hemocompatibility. Energy loss is closely related to blood trauma, and a proper understanding of this connection is important to balance the hydraulic performance and hemocompatibility of blood pumps, guide the design of high-performance blood pumps, and construct accurate blood trauma models.