Mechanical Auxiliary Ventricle (MAV)
date: label: date made
content: about 1966
name: label: maker
content: Kantrowitz, Adrian
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: The U-shaped left mechanical auxiliary ventricle (MAV), referred to today as a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), was designed to augment the left ventricle, by reducing its work-load, helping to pump blood through the body. This U-shaped VAD was developed by Adrian Kantrowitz (1918-2008), and his colleagues in the early 1960’s in the surgical research laboratory at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It was intended as a temporary partial or permanent circulatory support. The power supply was an external control unit. The earliest MAV’s were handmade. The bulb was Silicone rubber, and connected by Dacron arterial grafts.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Kantrowitz’s group first experimented on dogs in his laboratory. The earliest MAC’s resembled a large egg or bulb. Two grafts were attached to each end. The group implanted the MAV in different sites along the aorta; the abdominal aorta, the thoracic aorta, in the aortic arch and end-to-side in the ascending and descending aorta. The museum has several examples of this first assist device from an earlier Kantrowitz donation. See accession 290303, catalogue numbers MG*M-12971 through MG*M-12974. The group went on to develop the U-shaped assist device, which was suggested by Dr. Tetutsu Akutsu.
label: Description
content: The left mechanical auxiliary ventricle (MAV), also known as a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), augmented the left ventricle, helping to pump blood through the body. It was developed in the early 1960s by Adrian Kantrowitz (1918-2008) and his colleagues in the surgical research laboratory at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It was intended as a temporary partial or permanent circulatory support. The power supply was an external control unit. This example is a U-shaped assist device as suggested by Tetsuzo Akutsu (1922-2007), M.D., Ph.D., working at the Texas Heart Institute.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Detroit
topic: label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Medicine
label: Subject
content: Artificial Organs
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Jean Kantrowitz
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2013.0317.01
label: accession number
content: 2013.0317
label: catalog number
content: 2013.0317.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: ventricle assist device
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 51 cm x 10.5 cm x 6 cm; 20 3/32 in x 4 1/8 in x 2 3/8 in