Development and In Vivo Testing of a Chronic Percutaneous Prosthesis

Abstract

Significant progress has been made in the development of a percutaneous energy transmission system (PETS) designed to provide energy to intracorporeally implanted blood pumps for up to 2 yr. The mean survival of 6 most recent PETS implantations was 351 .+-. 33 days. Of these 4 were explanted electively after a full year of implantation. Sinus formation around each prosthesis was limited by a biomaterial seal at the sinus termination point. Evidently collagen inhibits epidermal downgrowth. Continued development of systems based on this hypothesis is desirable.