News Release from: Saft Lithium Battery Division
Subject: Berlin Heart
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 11 April 2002

Batteries power vascular-assist devices

Saft has adapted its wide range of battery technologies specifically for life-saving heart implantation systems.

Note: A free brochure or catalogue is available from Saft Lithium Battery Division on the products in this news release. Click here to request a copy.

Saft has adapted its wide range of battery technologies specifically for life-saving heart implantation systems. The Saft batteries feature some of the latest advances in fail-safe power reliability, an absolutely indispensable requirement for batteries in this medical application. They support a number of vascular-assist devices manufactured by Berlin Heart, a supplier of leading-edge systems that have helped save the lives of many patients suffering from heart and circulation diseases.

An overworked heart, awaiting a transplant, may require extra help until the right donor is available.

During this important period, a vascular-assist device (or VAD) from Germany's Berlin Heart can make the difference.

Berlin Heart makes a number of VADs that aid in coronary functions.

Saft makes the high-tech batteries that supply the power necessary for the implants.

From among Saft's broad portfolio of battery solutions, its Specialty Battery group offers a rechargeable lithium technology known as medium prismatic, or MP, for the drivers that are used with Berlin Heart's Incor I and II VADs.

(Prismatic battery cells are flat compared with the round shape of cylindrical cells.) The external driver is powered by two redundant batteries consisting of six MP 174865 cells (each cell measures approximately 17 x 48 x 65mm).

This small size is one key reason that the MP batteries are attractive for this application.

Each Saft MP 174865 cell weighs just 121g yet packs a capacity rated at 4.6Ah with nominal voltage of 3.6V.

Low weight, slim dimensions, high reliability and the specific power required for the application are the features that led Berlin Heart to select Saft batteries.

They can operate the external control unit for up to 10h without recharging, and they can be fully recharged in just 60min when a so-called "pulse" charge technology is used.

They also recharge to greater than 85% of their initial capacity - even after 500 charging cycles.

Incor I is in the long term capable of stabilising a diseased heart's circulation.

The range of applications extends from cardiac support prior to transplantation (bridge to transplant) to heart support leading to recovery (bridge to recovery), which subsequently renders a transplant unnecessary.

Blood coming from the heart flows into an axial pump and then on to what are known as an impeller and a stationary diffuser wheel.

While the Incor I is an axial pump, the Incor II is a pulsatile system which functions approximately in the same way as a natural heart.

It pumps blood in pulses, according to the rhythm of the patient's heart, thereby assisting the diseased heart in circulating the patient's blood.

In doing so, the system eases the heart's workload to such a degree that its functional ability improves noticeably.

Company comments Ecaterina Hauser, a Germany-based sales manager of Saft, comments: "Our MP batteries provide unparalleled autonomy for the most demanding mobile devices.

The MP cells marry the power of rechargeable lithium-ion technology to advanced battery construction.

They are strongly built, corrosion-resistant and low-magnetic".

The cells don't contain lithium metal; instead, they operate based on insertion and extraction of lithium ions into and out of their electrodes.

Other applications where the same technology is used include satellites, uncrewed vehicles and handheld terminals.

Thomas Kober, Berlin Heart's CEO, observes: "With these new systems capable of taking over the function of a biological heart, we will reach tremendous additional potential in specific therapy fields". Request a free brochure from Saft Lithium Battery Division....

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